Design

‘Big Fun Art’ Spreads to Phoenix

A risqué art exhibition housed in a 16,000-square-foot commercial building stands out among the typically more cheery immersive “museums” spreading in 2018.
A landscape architect by profession, Bill Tonnesen is an ardent modern art enthusiast, Andy Warhol devotee, and a prolific—often provocative—artist in his own right. He’s overseen controversial development projects in Tempe, including the transformation of several properties into large-scale public art installations.Bill Tonnesen

Illuminated by floor-recessed lighting, the bottom half of a 1,500 square-foot subterranean room is suffused in pink, slow-curling fog. By one wall is a life-sized plaster-cast statue of a bare-chested woman, head concealed in cloth, holding a naked infant upside-down. A gaunt female model with an alabaster face saunters languidly through the space, like a mute witness to some macabre ritual. The 50 or so patrons, who each paid a $30 entrance fee, tentatively explore the room’s perimeter, wading through the puffy fuchsia tide, when a baritone voice registers through speakers:

“Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to be buried alive.”