Toys on the Side

If actor/musician/artist Richard Edson turned into the Troy McClure character in The Simpsons, this is what he might say: “Hi, I’m Richard Edson. Though my name isn’t known on, say, a Michael Jackson-like plane, you may remember me from films such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off (I was the joy-riding parking-garage-attendant a-hole), Stranger Than Paradise (I played Eddie in that one), Desperately Seeking Susan, Platoon, and the Spike Lee joint Do the Right Thing.”

But unlike the done-for, one-dimensional McClure, Edson – whose film credits are approaching triple-digits – is anything but a Hollywood hack. Plus, he was the original drummer of this band you may have heard of called Sonic Youth. The Los Angeles resident is also a pretty kick-butt photographer, evidenced by an exhibition currently showing at Perihelion Arts. Edson’s large-format, hyper-focused-on-one-area shots of children’s toys is in-a-good-way startling, and may make the viewer attach anthropomorphized qualities to each subject, which range from a toy hippopotamus to a rabbit-girl figurine.