Impending Future Bus, Randy Regier

Artwork Overview

Image not available
Randy Regier, artist
born 1964
Impending Future Bus, 2004
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: mixed media; steel; cast plastic; acrylic urethane
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 27.9 x 17.8 x 132 cm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 11 x 7 x 52 in
Object Length (Length): pull cord 120.5 cm
Object Length (Length): 47 1/2 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund
Accession number: 2010.0003.01
Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Separate and Not Equal: A History of Race and Education in America

At first glance, Regier’s Impending Future Bus suggests levity and playfulness, with its deliberate evocation of childhood toys and midcentury innocence. Closer examination reveals more serious themes at play, as black male-female pairs sit stiff and stoic in the first nine rows of a bus while a lone white man occupies the back. The imagery clearly draws from Jim Crow–era America, when African Americans were forced to sit at the rear of buses. More subtly, Regier references the Ray Bradbury short story “The Other Foot,” in which white people are suddenly forced to enter a world where they become the
oppressed minority to a dominant and flourishing African American community. As one of many works the artist created in Kansas, this piece invites the viewer to consider the subjectivity of racism in America.

20/21

When we play we have fun. If we are just playing, we do not “mean it”-we are not serious. But play may not always be light-hearted. When we watch two teams play a sport the athletes are committed to their activity. The ability to play a musical instrument requires years of hard practice. Cartoons can be playful but a political cartoon uses an accessible visual style to comment on society. Anyone who has been teased by someone who was “just playing” can still be hurt by those words. Randy Regier and H.C. Westermann explore American mass culture from the 1950s, including children’s toys and cartoons, to comment on the interaction of Americans with their landscape, race, death, disaster, and an uncertain future. The artists share a commitment to craftsmanship, an engaging, playful style, and an unquestionable seriousness of purpose.

20/21

When we play we have fun.
If we are just playing, we do not “mean it”-we are not serious. But play may not always be light-hearted. When we watch two teams play a sport the athletes are committed to their activity. The ability to play a musical instrument requires years of hard practice. Cartoons can be playful but a political cartoon uses an accessible visual style to comment on society. Anyone who has been teased by someone who was “just playing” can still be hurt by those words. Randy Regier and H.C. Westermann explore American mass culture from the 1950s, including children’s toys and cartoons, to comment on the interaction of Americans with their landscape, race, death, disaster, and an uncertain future. The artists share a commitment to craftsmanship, an engaging, playful style, and an unquestionable seriousness of purpose.

20/21

When we play we have fun.
If we are just playing, we do not “mean it”-we are not serious. But play may not always be light-hearted. When we watch two teams play a sport the athletes are committed to their activity. The ability to play a musical instrument requires years of hard practice. Cartoons can be playful but a political cartoon uses an accessible visual style to comment on society. Anyone who has been teased by someone who was “just playing” can still be hurt by those words. Randy Regier and H.C. Westermann explore American mass culture from the 1950s, including children’s toys and cartoons, to comment on the interaction of Americans with their landscape, race, death, disaster, and an uncertain future. The artists share a commitment to craftsmanship, an engaging, playful style, and an unquestionable seriousness of purpose.

Exhibitions

Susan Earle, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
2010
Susan Earle, curator
2016–2021
Susan Earle, curator
2009–2015
Susan Earle, curator
2016–2021
Cassandra Mesick Braun, curator
Celka Straughn, curator
2017
Kate Meyer, curator
2020

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 284 (revised Episode 283) Dec-2012, Raechel Cook I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. Kansas artist Randy Regier explores narratives of American history and culture. His hand-crafted toys made from found and repurposed materials comment playfully on such loaded subjects as race, death, disaster and the uncertain future. Regier’s 2004 work titled Impending Future Bus is a deliberately-aged pull toy that recalls the look of mid-twentieth century playthings and appliances. The bus’s green steel body is crowned with a clear plastic vista view dome. Inside, paired male and female black passengers occupy the first nine rows of seats while a white man sits alone in the very back row. All the passengers wear blue and sit stoically facing the front. The bus driver does not hold the steering wheel. A rope with a red handle serves as a means of pulling the toy and begs the question, “Who is driving the bus?” The work was inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story "The Other Foot" and a 2003 National Public Radio story about the impending minority status of white Americans. With thanks to Raechel Cook for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.
Listen to core object information.
Audio Description
Listen to core object information.
Audio Description
The artist is Randy Regier, born 1964, in Omaha, Nebraska. The title of the work is Impending Future Bus, created in 2004. The work was made with steel, mixed media, cast plastic, and acrylic urethane.
Listen to Audio Description
Audio Description
Listen to Audio Description
Audio Description
Impending Future Bus is a sculptural work of art that is more than four feet long and is made to look like a retro yet futuristic pull-toy bus. A four-foot cord with a red handle is attached to the front bumper of the bus. The body of the bus is a metallic yellow-green color. There are shiny chrome bumpers, side guards, and decorative details. There also are some bright red decorative elements, such as a vertical strip on the nose of the bus, raised strips on the chrome side guards, and hubcaps centered on white tires. Inside the bus, under a domed, see-through ceiling, are 11 rows of seats. In each of the front nine rows there is a man and woman seated on either side of the center aisle; their skin is painted brown. Each woman wears a blue dress with a white collar and black shoes. Each man wears a blue jacket, white shirt, black tie, gray slacks, black shoes, and a neat, sporty white cap. The tenth row of seats is empty. In the eleventh row, at the far back of the bus, there is a man with pale pink painted skin who is dressed exactly the same as the black men with the one exception of his hat. The white man is wearing a brown fedora. A sign framed by chrome on the side of the bus declares it to be the “Impending Future Bus,” and logos affixed just in front of the right front tire and on the rear end of the roof say, “Turn About Toy.” A sign on the rear bumper says, “Sights on the Future!”

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