Watching Simpsons

Perhaps, more than anything, the comercial success of a pop-culture enterprise can be measured by the amount of merchandising that takes place. For the Simpsons, this has become a vast, cash generating empire for Matt Groening. After all, there’s the new EA Sports Game about to hit shelves, and not to mention the Alf Clausen inspired soundtrack from more than a decade and a half of the show. There’s been countless other products floating out there, from comic books to toy figures and even temporarily themed 7-11 stores. At the soul of all of this has been the art of satire and parody, of course. But then again, a show like the Simpsons has been around long enough to stoke the imaginations of many people. This is uniquely evident in D.I.Y. Qee Project: BART, a traveling pop-art exhibit that features on wild variations on Bart Simpsons. According to Wired.com, even creator Matt Groening has a piece in the show:

The exhibit will feature a collection of 10-inch Bart Simpson vinyl figures painted, sculpted, and customized by Ron English, Buff Monster, Filth, Tristan Eaton, Adidas, and 100 more who’s who artists.

The show debuted at Comic Con in late July and has been touring the world ever since. Matt Groening, who has his own customized Bart in the show, has been popping up at some of the exhibits, so this may be your chance to rub elbows with Father Simpson.

Basically, the show allows artists to move beyond the confines of the Springfield universe and take what ever license they wish with the iconic image of Bart. This allows a lot of artists to fully explore themselves through the form of Bart Simpsons. As one can see on the Toysrevil blog (where the photo has been “borrowed” from), the results have been wild and unpredictable. There’s versions Bart’s shape is recognizable, but the paint job is a series of jagged black and white lines. There’s also stranger interpretations, like the above picture of Yunicorn’s Bart entitled “The Heart Replacer.” In this case, the artists life outside the show came into collision with the project itself. Yunicorn says, via a toysrevil interview:

I wanted to try to get away from the Bart character as much as possible with this sculpt, while still keeping it recognizable. So, the first thing I did was chop his face off and cut a hole in his chest. I had recently split up with my girlfriend of 7 years and this was sort of a reaction to how I was feeling about it. Like some creature had climbed into my chest and set up shop where my heart used to be. Lately my characters have been a little more autobiographical in a roundabout way.