His Art Leads Him ‘Off Beaten Track’

Artist David Mach crawled out from under a bright-orange 10-by-20-foot cargo container. Stiff and dirty, he stood and scrutinized his creation, which consisted of about 70 smiling Barbie and Ken dolls, arms raised as if to support the 2-ton bin like an army of miniature plastic caryatids.

“This is crazy; this is a mistake,” said the Scottish-born 31-year-old, responding with a grin to an observer who had asked, “What is this ?”

Of course, Mach doesn’t think his latest artwork is “crazy”--or a “mistake.” It was just that less than halfway through gluing down some 600 Barbie and Ken dolls, each wearing colorful Hawaiian sports clothes, he was “sore.”

Indeed, a sculpture made from Mattel toys and a metal container may sound “crazy” to some. But Mach believes he’s exploring serious issues with “Off the Beaten Track,” which will be on view outside UCLA’s Wight Art Gallery through March 13.

An iconoclast, Mach creates large-scale works that usually challenge society’s wasteful overproduction and satirize consumerism.

Using mass-produced objects--not used-up old toasters, but excess items like hundreds of unsold magazines, vinegar bottles or telephone directories--he has constructed a life-size Rolls-Royce and created a 180-foot Polaris submarine and a single-car-garage-size Parthenon--the latter from car tires.

Now living in London, Mach has built these structures in Europe, at the 19th Biennale in Brazil, in Canada, and in New York and Boston.

His latest work, presented as part of “UK/LA 1988: A Celebration of British Arts,” “is all part of the mass-production versus the individual thing,” said Mach while installing the sculpture the other day. “We’re all told, ‘You should wear this , because it’s really you,’ ” he explained in a thick Scottish accent. “But a million people around the world are wearing the same blue jeans, the same pair of sunglasses, the same socks. You name it.

“The Barbie dolls (donated by Mattel) are put forward as individuals, but of course they’re not. You’ll don’t get dolls with acne or a hump”--or dolls that are unemployed, Mach said, adding that Barbie has a British counterpart named Sindy.

Instead, the healthy, wealthy Barbie and Ken, whose accessories include a shiny red Ferrari, a pink computer and a stereo set, depict the “highly successful” consumer. That image “pushes you toward being an owner--to buy a house, a carpet, a swimming pool,” Mach said. “Barbie drives a Ferrari, not a Pinto. Not everybody can be like that, which makes it much harder for those people who can’t.

“We’re under a constant barrage of this consumerism stuff--from TV, films, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets people stick under your door. I don’t like it so I’m talking about it.”

The heavy container seemingly supported by the dolls is symbolic of classical Greek architecture, Mach said, particularly those structures with caryatid columns.

“These ancient buildings were meant to celebrate our own smartness,” Mach said, “and they were meant to be permanent, solid. This sculpture is a temporary thing. I don’t like permanency. All those ancient monuments did was talk about local politics of the time--which were often shady and dubious indeed.”

The cargo bin, installed with a fork lift, also hints at Mach’s rebellion against his art school training, one that stressed the creation of art that was easy to sell--which meant easy to transport from studio or gallery to home, he said.

His primary aim with “Off the Beaten Track,” co-sponsored by the Wight Art Gallery and the California/International Arts Foundation, was to make a sculpture, not a statement, Mach said. “Whether people get any of these ideas behind it is another thing.”

But, he added, “I dislike art that talks about itself all the time.” Preferring to work “live” and install his sculptures while people are watching, he said, “I like to be able to talk about other things and attract a wider crowd--at the risk of making a fool of myself!”