But neither snow nor rain nor the threat of complaints could further delay the opening reception for “Cheap Toys: The Search for Satisfaction.”

The installation in the Reineke Visual Arts Gallery postponed its initial opening Saturday night, after school administration raised concerns over the show’s subject matter. The exhibit displays more than 160 stuffed toys in compromising sexual positions.

Some felt the opening, scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m., would be unsuitable for the family audience expected for a production of “The Nutcracker” across the lobby in Festival Concert Hall.

“We all felt it was important to be judicious about the potential audience for the show,” says John Miller, director of the Division of Fine Arts.

The show was assembled by NDSU alumna Christina Johnson, her brother, Brian, and her husband, Gerry Gallenbeck.

In an artists’ statement, the threesome explain the show is about “trying to recapture our childhood -- or more specifically, the easy, shameless joy that can be found in childhood.”

The posters play with taglines like “stuffed animals,” “get lucky” and “real soft core,” all of which take on an innocuous double entendre when it is revealed the toys were won with Skill Crane parlor games.

“It’s not supposed to be shocking, offensive art, but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t want to ruffle any feathers,” Christina says. “It would’ve been easy enough to make this a non-offensive story, but I don’t know if anyone would look at it twice.”

Truth be told, there’s not a whole lot to look at. In a white room with a white recliner in front of a white television, a bunch of toys are laid upon each other as Kool and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” plays over and over.

“Part of it is a goofy statement of what you can find in the cranes,” Christina says.

The show includes the popular but controversial Homies dolls, two firefighting bears, a shark sporting a top hat, which reads “United we stand,” devouring Osama Bin Laden and another bear in overalls, a cowboy hat and a cigarette dangling from its muzzle -- kind of like Paddington’s hillbilly cousin.

So why not display the dolls by themselves?

“That would be very flat,” Christina says.

Complaints about the perceived graphic nature of the show is deflected by a passage in the artists’ statement.

“No matter how suggestively we arrange them, they will never be able to fulfill the acts they mimic. They are sexless, and therefore, incapable of ever being as ‘graphic’ or ‘dirty’ as certain critics would like to interpret them to be.”

So the bigger question is not about lost innocence or graphic depictions, but rather, what is art?

Gallenbeck refers to the show as a “found installation” and says the art was in the acquisition of the toys.

At the reception, Kent Kapplinger, co-director of the gallery and associate professor of visual arts, addressed the question.

“What is art? If all you ever show is very tame things, that question will never come up,” he said. “Maybe no questions will come up.”

The show is up through Friday. Images from the exhibit can be seen at www.dualbunny.com/cheaptoys/.

Readers can reach Forum reporter John Lamb at (701) 241-5533. © John Lamb 2003

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