The Drive Thru Art Box at Green Truck Neighborhood Pub is one of the more unique art spaces in Savannah. Occupying a literal former drive through restaurant menu box, it has served up artistic morsels since it was first reimagined by artist Matt Hebermehl back in 2012.
For the next 16 weeks, Savannah transplant Chris Moss will be cooking up creativity in the popular outdoor gallery with his ambitious project, "100 Proposals for the Drive Thru Art Box."
“What if I incorporated the idea that this is a burger restaurant?” Moss asked himself when ARTS Southeast and Art Box curator Jon Witzky suggested he do a series of works for the Starland spot. “But then I thought, wouldn’t it be funny, nobody’s actually taken the actual site of this into consideration when doing their installation, or admitting that there’s a burger restaurant right behind this thing. It would be really funny to do my painting, but make it in the shape of a hamburger.”
Those initial gouache paintings did, indeed, turn out to be quite funny, a bizarro world mashup of giant hamburgers and the screaming blockhead character frequently found in his other work, done as though they are portraits of the art box itself with his pieces inside. He liked them so much, he decided to take it much, much further, a proposition that not even the artist is sure he’ll be able to pull off.
“I don’t know if I can come up with a hundred proposals,” Moss laughed. “I don’t have any idea if this is gonna work.
“They’re not all gonna be great,” he went on to say, “but they’re gonna be fun and interesting I think.”
The plan is to exhibit six pieces per week for the full sixteen week run of the exhibition, giving him a total of ninety-six different versions of his Drive Thru Art Box proposal. Adding the four pieces he did as initial promo images, and the entire project will hopefully encompass a full hundred works.
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
As the pieces are switched out, they'll be available for sale via ARTS Southeast's website and through his Instagram @mrhopthescissor until the show concludes. They'll be "fairly cheap" he says, at least until he's done with the project, at which time he plans on upping the prices (so if you take a liking to one or more of them, the time to buy them is while the exhibition is still happening).
Moss is a relative unknown in the local art community, even though he moved to town back in late 2016. After contending with the normal trials and tribulations of moving (he came to Savannah from Brooklyn, where he’d lived the previous 14 years), he spent a year and a half building his new art studio. Then COVID hit, and the opportunities to connect with other creatives dwindled to almost nothing for nearly two years.
But about six months ago he started having studio visits, reaching out to local creative hotspots like Location Gallery and, of course, ARTS Southeast, setting in motion his first forays into the scene. He’s now been a part of a couple of group shows at the former, and this project with the latter constitutes his biggest Savannah-based project to date.
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
“100 Proposal for the Drive Thru Art Box” will also allow the artist to connect with folks via social media as well, bringing his followers into the kitchen as he cooks up fresh ideas.
“I kind of built it with Instagram in mind,” Moss explained. “It’s just handy to have a project that you can say something about at least once a week, that’s actually new stuff, and not just reporting from your studio, ‘Here’s some more paint drying.’ It’s part of the project to document it in that way.”
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
IF YOU GO
“100 Proposal for the Drive Thru Art Box” by Chris Moss will be on view at Green Truck Neighborhood Pub located at 2430 Habersham Street in Savannah through July 8. The artist will be hosting a happy hour talk at the restaurant on May 25 from 6-8pm.
