Urban Viking timberwolf Dennis McNett just returned to Brooklyn from a gothic crusade across the US invoking the imagery of mythic god monsters and engaging the imaginations of the ever-legion artistic minions who follow him. The Street Artist, performance art director, professor, and proto-historic re-enactor knows how to engage the fun loving child and the warrior beast within students and artists alike. Whether invoking the Latino folk beast the Chupakabra, Nordic mythology, or McNett’s own mystical Wolfbats and Wolf-eagles, the 3-month tour successfully summoned the awestruck to participate in a loosely guided theater and public performance art wherever it went.
Dennis McNett and friends and blood on the ice. (photo courtesy © of the artist) Madison, WI
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Artist Visit
” The students UW each made helmets, axes, swords, and also helped to build the frost giant, the blood ice castle, and Wolfbat Sled. After processioning through State Street we went out onto the frozen lake to conjure the great frost giant Ymir from his blood ice castle and we had a ceremony of battle” – Dennis McNett
Dennis McNett (photo courtesy © of the artist) All Fools Day. Kansas City, MO April, 2011
Leaving the major metropolitan centers to the effete and coddled lily-livered mama’s boys and girls, Dennis trudges into the nether regions of a vast continent to 10 outlying wolf settlements including Vermillion, SD, Bellingham,WA, Madison, WI, Jacksonville. FL, St. Louis, MO, Kansas City, MO, Emporia Kansas, Wichita, KA, Omaha, NE, Lubbock, TX, and Odessa, TX. At each encampment, McNett’s imagination and enthralling storytelling persuades locals to participate in parades, prop making, and to summon the roaring grunt from deep within all mythic monsters to slay adversaries and chest pound with victory.
Dennis McNett (photo courtesy © of the artist) All Fools Day. Kansas City, MO April, 2011
By now McNett’s mask making and heavily carved contour lines have mutated to include everything they intersect with, and participants are game to call forth the roar of the inner wolfbat and light stuff on fire, with a torch in one hand and a shank of grizzled wilderbeast in the other. During the tour the McNett adventures involved sacrificial burnings, fortune telling, piñatas, the guttural roaring of metal bands, custom trains, chupakabras, Viking vessels, blood ice castles, and of course, UFOs.
Dennis McNett (photo courtesy © of the artist) All Fools Day. Kansas City, MO April, 2011
The Wichata State Univeristy Artist Visit
“This event involved a lot. The guys at Escapist allowed me to have a show of work at their space – so that was the end spot for the nights chaos. We built a Wolfbat War Vessel that started at the Inkubator where there were two alien pinatas built at Wichita State Univeristy. Sedlec Ossuary (a metal band from Topeka) was set up inside the vessel and students from KCAI, Emporia State, and Wichita State showed up in Wolfbat warrior regalia.
The local crowd from the First Friday art walk gathered as we slayed the aliens and proceeded down the street with the band growling. The street was overrun and traffic had to move at the pace of the Wolfbat mob. After making our way to Escapist we slayed 3 more alien pinatas, burned a sacrificial war eagle in the street, and lit off tons of fireworks. Thank you Deluxe, Vans, and Volcom for filling the pinatas and the support. Thank you Ericka, James, and Miguel and Wichita State, KCAI, and Emporia state students for showing up and getting down” – Dennis McNett
Dennis McNett (photo courtesy © of the artist). Wolfbat War Vessel and the sacrificial burning of the fallen gods. St. Louis. March, 2011.
Dennis McNett (photo courtesy © of the artist). Wolfbat Railway. Omaha, NE April 2011
The University of Nebraska Artist Visit
“Omaha is known as the “Gate City of the West” because it is where Union Pacific Railroad built and started the first transcontinental railroad, making it a major hub leading west by train. For the my visit to the University of Nebraska, Omaha we launched the first ever Wolfbat Railway. I built a print covered train steam engine and all the students made cowboy hats. On the last day we paraded the train to the new business center where it will live” – Dennis McNett
Dennis McNett (photo courtesy © of the artist) Odessa, TX. April 2011
The Ambush of the Jackalope
“The Chupakabra have joined with the Wolfbat in order to track the Jackalope and reclaim their territories in west Texas. The Jackalope have come down from Wyoming and have been over breeding the lands and pushing the Chupakabra out. Once the head Jackalope heard the Chupakabra had put a hit out for his life he fled. Unknowingly the travel agent booking his flight to Stonehenge was actually working for the Wolfbat and booked the flight to the Stonehenge replica in Odessa, TX where the clan are awaiting his arrival” – Dennis McNett
Dennis McNett (photo courtesy © of the artist)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
The Biennale of Urban Art in Lille, in the north of France continues at a relaxed pace with new pieces including a new window pane reflective moment by the French-Austrian stencil couplt Jana & JS...
You may think of that unelected global body called the World Economic Forum when you see the word, “Reset” today. Leon Keer. Reset. Assisted by Massina. We.Create Art Mural Festival. Sand City. M...
When you are in trouble, reach out! You don’t have to do it alone. That is the sentiment you may think of when regarding this new mural by JDL (Judith de Leeuw) in Amsterdam. The three frame stor...
Never Crew is in the Ural Mountains in Satka, Russia with a message about man’s disconnection with nature. Their murals often contain one large animal, and this time a bear takes center stage – rather...
Completing a cross Atlantic bookending of public artworks that few ever could, the French-Swiss artist Saype was at the UN this week for the General Assembly meeting – and to complete a project he be...