Jeffrey Vallance and Blinky, The Friendly Hen

Blinky, The Friendly Hen, has been dead for four decades but her reputation has rarely faded thanks to Jeffrey Vallance. The artist purchased a roasting chicken at the grocery store and proceeded to bestow upon her the funereary rites more commonly reserved for devoted Catholics. She was laid to rest in a satin-lined chicken-sized coffin and interred at the pet cemetery with a granite headstone. This bit of art and performance caught the attention of Dave Letterman, who interviewed Vallance on his late night show in 1983.

Photo by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp.

Jeffrey Vallance Blinky Manger Scene, 2018. Photo by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp.

Jeffrey Vallance Blinky Exhumation Bone, 2007 Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.

Jeffrey Vallance Blinky’s Coffin, 1989 Coffin with plastic chicken replica, paper towel. Courtesy of Barry Sloane.

Jeffrey Vallance, Divine Mother Hen, 2018 Stained glass, metal, wood. Photo by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp.

Jeffrey Vallance Las Vegas - Lappadonia, 2001 Mixed media on wood 18 5/8 x 14 1/4 in. Courtesy of the artist and Edward Cella Gallery

Jeffrey Vallance: Other Animals, the show at Edward Cella Art and Architecture. The representation of animals is pre-historic, symbolic or mythic as well as actual. Vallance incorporates that awareness in his faux naif methods of illustration. As in the saga of Blinky, his child-like drawing styles belie complex meanings. Both shows continue through March 16.