BENDR2D2 | Bleeding Metallics Exhibition

It’s always a pleasure contributing to the grandiose shows put on by Hero Complex Gallery. Gallery owner and curator Adam Smasher and his team always gather top notch visual artists and pair them with the ultimate pop culture themes. August is another stellar exhibition properly titled Bleeding Metallics features artwork with metallic inks, paints, papers, and metal itself. Beery Method Studios was brimming with explosive ideas for this show and settled on a pop-cult droid-bot mash up to forever go into the intergalactic archives of galaxies far away and future Earth light years from now…BENDR2D2

Like most millenials Star Wars and Futurama strike the vein of fandom love for all blessed sci-fi and animation hunger. Mashing up the two cultures by combining the two infamous robot(bots) and android(droids) was an epic blast of dual carnality. Smashing up Bender from Futurama with R2D2 of Star Wars seemed inevitable in the circus of pop cult menagerie. The feat was fueled by extrapolating specific elements key to each character, blowing them apart, and then re-fusing them back together to fit as lock stock and barrel.

BENDR2D2 appears on the desolate landscape of Tatooine. Bringing together the folds of a Star Wars planet and giving it a Futurama atmosphere with retro-contemporary attributes was the aim. An ode to Japanese poster makers I imported elements that reflect the newage Earth with radiant sun burst and small design elements such as 30th Century, a Neutron symbol, Roman Numeral 2013, and grungy textural color tones. I use Kanji in a lot of my pop culture pieces. The symbols used in BENDR2D2 refer to Bender’s catchphrase “Bite my shiny metal ass!”. However, the English to Japanese vice versa translation appears as “Rear side of the metal which make me glossy is bitten!”. If writers of the animated series were to ever have John DiMaggio use this it would be instant classic to hear him say (in that raspy Bender voice) “Watashi no kōtakunoaru kinzoku-sei no haimen-gawa o kamu!”

An appropriate percentage of each culture was applied to render the Bender astutely. The Death Star looms above. The droid body has decals of Slurm, Planet Express, The Rebel Alliance, and X-Wing Squadron logos. Rather than give bender his flexible arms I decided to stick with the old school D2 retractable mechanisms. Thus BENDR2D2 has a lighter for his cigar and a ratchet-clasp-claw to imbibe on a refreshing Pabst Blue Robot Beer. The Planet Express Ship takes off in the background. Last but not least emitting from that holographic projector wired on the side of his head BENDER2D2 views his lovely fem-bot GF Rachel from the series. I figured watching hookerbot porn on his hologram was another likely act, but wanted to give a specific reference that could equal Princess Leia.

Beery Method Design standards were used all across the board on this piece. From the grunged out textural scans, bold yet muted color palettes, to the flavor of inks splattering. The note at the bottom of the piece Publication of the Galactic Forestry gives it the vintage feel as though it were some archaic piece of the future somehow landing in the present.

Below are some photos of the 16×20 Ltd Ed Metallic Stock prints available from Hero Complex Gallery LA. Contact the HCG crew for purchase and inquiries.

Fantastic reviews of the show below:
411 POSTERS
BLURPPY 
FIREWIRE
PRINTHOARDER

All photos and images ©Nick Beery | Beery Method Studios | All rights reserved.