Impending Future Bus, Randy Regier

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.

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.

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!”