REVIEW: "Overdrive-Nostalgia Through the Slipstream", by Jon Bolt

When dealing with thoughts of nostalgia, more often than not, there is a great desire to go back to a past life and relive it in a new light. The yearning of this voyage back in time is what artist Jon Bolts exhibition titled, “Overdrive- Nostalgia through the slipstream” does in manyand unexpected ways. Taking place at the UB project space on 2/29/24, Jon Bolt managed to turn that small gallery into a field almost overrun with objects of childhood play and imagination. It resembled a dump, but a carefully curated dump that tackles the reality of the ever expanding debris of objects that once held a significant importance in the formative lives of many kids including Jon who grew up in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. One can say that the space looked like a gravesite and the onlookers who attended the exhibition came to pay respect and mourn about how we morph into adults that leave old debris behind to create new ones.

As an artist who engages with these artifacts, Jon has a sharp eye that monitors the creation, advertisement, sale, and later the disposal of toys and other materials that fuel the industry of childhood play and entertainment. He often talks about bridging the separations of how these objects are made and destroyed by merging all those processes together and the end result are images and installations that look uncanny. Plastic is one of the materials that play a central role in Jons artistic experimentation and communication as he either collects them to display in their raw form( as seen in this particular exhibition) or melts them to create new forms.

In this exhibition, I was particularly drawn to the road rag reimagined as a playful and dystopian environment where the familia settings that usually show hospitals, schools, or even churches are replaced with abstract images of clutter and waste. What remains is the road that is interactable when we play with the toys provided but these roads lead nowhere. Critiquing the market place does give a feeling of fighting a giant who only grows bigger and stronger when it's being attacked. This giant even uses the tool of nostalgia to engage with our sensibilities of reliving our innocent and playful pasts to compel us to engage and buy more stuff. Jon Bolt's work gives room to playfulness while also creating space for introspection that is needed if we want to achieve true sustainability that confronts our spending habits.