5 February, 2008—Track 16 Gallery is pleased to announce FIVE concurrent exhibitions: JeffEry: BLINKY THE FRIENDLY HEN 30TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION; JAMES GOODWIN: NOSTALGIC SUBTERFUGE; LAURIE HASSOLD: SUPERNATURE; MARJAN HORMOZI: VICE SQUAD; DAVE SHULMAN: EXHIBIT DAVE; and SCOTTY VERA: EAT THIS. The exhibitions will be on view from March 8 through April 5, 2008 with opening receptions on Saturday, March 8 from 6 to 9 P.M. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M.

2008 marks the thirty-year anniversary of Jeffrey Vallance’s project, Blinky the Friendly Hen. In celebration of this historic event, Vallance will release The Special 30th Anniversary Edition of the publication, Blinky the Friendly Hen (Smart Art Press; Santa Monica, 2008) and construct a life-size Blinky Chapel complete with roof and steeple in Track 16’s cavernous main space. The inside of the chapel will contain display cases filled with Blinky relics and artifacts. The original Blinky (1978) was a piece of meat (chicken) Vallance purchased at a local supermarket. What followed was a trip to the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery to see if they would bury a piece of meat—they did, and held a subsequent burial ritual for a dead pet, all documented by Vallance.

Vallance statement:

In 1978 when I was 23 years old, I had a job restoring antique penny arcade machines. For the first time in my life I  had money in my bank account—five thousand dollars to be exact. I decided to spend the entire amount on an art piece, so I self-published the story of Blinky the Friendly Hen. Blinky was a piece of meat (chicken) that I purchased at a local supermarket. (Blinky was so named due to of the chicken’s peculiar cockeyed gaze.) I took Blinky to the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery to see if they would bury a piece of meat—if I had the cash. They did. What followed was the entire burial ritual for a dead pet. 

The Blinky piece was originally like a prank -- just so see what I could get away with. I thought it had no meaning at all. But I soon realized that Blinky was a stand-in for us. In that way, I could go through all of society’s death rituals without having to produce a “real” dead body. At the time of the Blinky piece, I was a vegetarian so the piece has an underling vegan statement as well.

Over time I came to believe that Blinky was an archetype of sacrifice. I saw serious correlations between Blinky’s sacrifice, suffering, death, burial, exhumation, and cultification, to the story of Christ’s Passion. It was as if this story (without any specific symbols) is written on the human heart. Culturally we inject familiar signs into the story to give it meaning—The Meaning of Life. Take the Friendly Hen for example: Blinky was born from an egg: the Easter symbol of birth and life, the chicken and the cock are symbols of virility and sexuality, they are also signify sacrifice and redemption, and ultimately the rooster is the emblem of resurrection—the cock crowing three times at the Dawn of Salvation. In the Bible, Christ compared Himself to a hen saying, “How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings!” (Luke 13:34)

Like no other work, the Blinky piece has caught the public’s imagination. Blinky is listed in several California travel guides and there are manifold references to the Friendly Hen on the Internet. The Blinky saga has become akin to an urban legend, with even the pet cemetery workers embellishing the story of the funeral service to include “hooded chanting mourners holding candles.” On Blinky’s grave, I often find strange votive offerings left by cemetery visitors. I was invited to be a guest on Late Night with David Letterman to tell the Blinky story. A reference to Blinky appeared on the TV show Married with Children in the episode “Yard Sale” in the form of “Winky the Dead Bird.” On The Simpsons show, Blinky’s headstone can be seen at the Springfield Pet Cemetery. Blinky is now like a cult thing. I have to be very careful in exhibiting Blinky Relics, as they are the pieces most frequently stolen from museums (for who knows what diabolical purpose).

At Track 16 gallery in conjunction with the release of the Special 30th Anniversary Edition of the Blinky the Friendly Hen book, I am constructing a life-size Blinky Chapel building complete with roof and steeple. The inside of the chapel will be full of display cases filled with Blinky relics and artifacts.

– Jeffrey Vallance