At the Arleigh Gallery, Gordon Yamamoto exhibited a dozen witty, burlesque charades in leather and in wood (with fittings and incidental accessories of brass and various other materials). The leather pieces were flamboyantly casual cowhide novelties, such as Banana Blanket—Combination Summer & Winter, a small holster-like leather envelope with optional fur lining encasing a banana. Bawdy allusions, visual puns and double entendres abounded, as well, in other cowhide exhibits entitled My Marbles, Zipper, Dilation, Girl’s Bicycle Seat and Marshmallow Cartridge Belt. Three carefully crafted walnut boxes with hinged lids contained funky assortments of objects, while a fourth box was fitted with a small, magnifying-lensed peep hole surmounted by a white buzzer-button beside a brass plate engraved with “By Appointment Only.” Pressing the button lights a flashlight bulb illuminating a miniature, mock-pornographic tableau behind the peephole.
—Palmer D. French_
