Rat Fink
When you picture art and objects from American counterculture of the 1960s and 70s, Mormonism is probably not foremost in your thoughts. Still, the new exhibition at The Emmanuel Art Gallery in Denver, Colorado, Rat Fink Revolution: Started with a T-shirt, Now We’re Here and the publication of a memoir by Michael Hicks, Wineskin: Freakin’ Jesus in the ‘60s and ‘70s, provide opportunities to expand your mind, as the psychedelic era repeatedly encouraged. (See a separate Out & About article in this issue for a preview of the forthcoming Hicks memoir.)
Ed “Big Daddy” Roth (1932-2001) was a central figure in Californian hot rod culture. As a repulsed reaction to the bland commodification of American culture epitomized by Mickey Mouse, he created the character of Rat Fink, a hairy, green cartoon rat that became the symbol of ‘rodding. The current exhibition charts his fascinating and extensive influence on cars, fashion, design, and culture.
Meanwhile, another reaction to the Mouse took place on the opposite coast as Ultra Violet (Isabelle Collin Dufresne) (1935-2014) borrowed from her immersion in Andy Warhol’s Factory to create a series of images that attached Pop Art wings to Mickey, thereby making a visual pun of Michelangelo’s name: Mickey, angel. How curious that both of those artists would become LDS. Cultural genealogists might have fun linking Ultra Violet, Warhol, The Velvet Underground (Warhol managed the band, and it was essentially The Factory’s house band) to La Monte Young (1935-), another LDS connection, who worked with the band’s John Cale. At the same time, another early rock band, New York Dolls, featured original band member Arthur Kane (1949-2004) on bass. He would eventually join the Church, too.
What influence did Mormonism have on Young, Roth, Dufresne, and Kane? In that time period, very little or none. Young, who at the age of 90 is still performing in New York, was born and raised in the Church, but Eastern thought supplanted early LDS influences on his music. Roth converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1974, Dufresne in 1981, and Kane in 1989. Still, step back a little, and the kaleidoscope becomes rich.
What was it about Mormonism that drew these iconoclastic souls to it? Each is a bold-face name in the chronicle of the period. Either they are outliers or our version of our cultural output needs some readjustment. Probably both. These artists left their stamp on the broader American culture by rejecting the establishment. And they left a mark on LDS culture, too, for those willing to see it.
I lived with Ultra Violet when I first came to New York in 1985, and we were friends until her death. Regarding the Church, I can tell you this: She was all in, and her belief shows up in her work everywhere. Watch the sweet embrace of the Church and family history by Arthur Kane in the Greg Whiteley 2005 documentary, New York Doll, and read about Roth’s dedication to LDS service opportunities in Manti, Utah, where he spent his last years, and you’ll see an intellectually diverse portrait of Mormonism that demands some label expansion.
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to get Young, Kane, Ultra Violet, and Roth in a room together in the late 80s? They were all members of the Church by then, all so strangely interconnected to a nation’s cultural revolution. I am curious what their works have to say to each other, about their country, and their membership in the same religion. I can imagine a museum exhibition as some kind of proxy family reunion, perhaps with a room dedicated to Mickey Mouse, made stranger by all those LDS early animators at Disney contrasted with and their rebellious 1960s/70s artistic cousins. That is a show waiting to happen.—Glen Nelson (Rat Fink Revolution: Started with a T-shirt, Now We’re Here continues at The Emmanuel Art Gallery through November 17.)