What happens when toilet seats transform into art?
If you’re interested, you can find out at the exhibit, “Thrones,” an attempt to turn the common toilet seat into new forms of expression at Nina’s Nook in Turners Falls, where rolls of toilet paper hang on the walls under art pieces made from toilet seats.
The storefront show features about a dozen toilet seats displayed in a 5-foot-wide by 21-foot-long space, extending to a back porch. The show will be up until June 25.
One piece called, “Throne of Games,” is a purple toilet seat decorated with dice, playing cards, Lego men and Scrabble pieces.
Another throne has an aquatic- themed mosaic with fish pictured circling around the bowl.
One pictures a constipated looking Donald Trump painted on a toilet seat called, the “Trump Dump,” which is on sale for $150.
A third seat has a portrait of plumbing pioneer and inventor Thomas Crapper painted by local artist Lahri Bond. Crapper’s face is depicted with varying brown hues and is framed by the toilet seat, which is covered in bike gears and clock gears.
“The show is, of course, about taking your basic toilet seat and turning it into art, so what I did was I thought about what the history of the toilet is,” said Bond, a Lake Pleasant resident of five years. “I did a steampunk tribute to Thomas Crapper. He wasn’t the inventor of the flush toilet, but he made it popular.”
A fourth toilet seat pictures a green snake mingling with a boot, surrounded by bullet holes, titled “There’s a Snake in Mah Boot.” This piece is by Nina Rossi, a writer and editor for the Montague Reporter who has lived in Turners since ’87.
She shot up the toilet seat with a 38 revolver and it’s now priced at $75.
“There was a special for toilet seats at Home Depot,” said Rossi, who has been running Nina’s Nook for about five years. She ended up buying about four solid oak toilet seats for $3.50 each.
Rossi told the artists to steer clear of poop humor. “My Trump is probably the most disgusting of all of them,” she said. “His face looks like he is straining.” Thankfully, she said, no one created a seat picturing brown clouds in a yellow sky.
The most expensive piece is stained glass depicting a toilet and plumbing, fit into old triptych toilet seats pulled from an old barn in Conway. It might weight close to 50 pounds and costs $900.
Each piece has a toilet paper hanging underneath listing the name of the piece.
“I figured it wasn’t too much of a waste to invest in four rolls of toilet paper for the show,” said Rossi.
You can reach Lisa Spear at:
lspear@recorder.com or
413-772-0261, ext. 280