Nicolas Cage has reinvented himself in recent years as something of an action hero, starring in movies like National Treasure and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. But artist Brandon Bird likes all of Cage’s characters.
In an article in Broken Pencil writer Alex Gurnham tells us about a concept Bird had that eventually became the Nicolas Cage Adventure Set, a project in the vein of Colorforms, a popular 70s-era toy where vinyl stickers of characters and props are set against a background board with various scenes. “I realized, ‘oh my god,'” Bird recalls, “‘every photo of Nicolas Cage is the best photo of Nicolas Cage. And I imagined lifting him off the photo and sticking him to another background.” Voilà: the Nicolas Cage Adventure Set.
But it’s not all fun and games; according to Gurnham there’s a larger message to be taken from Bird’s casting of pop characters in a new light (he’s also done homages to the TV show Law & Order and regularly places celebrities in new contexts in his art). “If there is a point to the Nicolas Cage Adventure Set, outside of its inherent awesomeness,” Gurnham writes, “it is that reimagination of the everyday it invites.
Whether there’s a higher purpose or not, there’s one thing that is for sure about Bird’s art: You’ll laugh when you see Nicolas Cage as a baby Japanese Macaque clinging to his mother or Jerry Seinfeld in a Bruce Lee pose.
Source: Broken Pencil
Images by Brandon Bird
