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Whirligig by Vollis Simpson of Wilson, NC, on display
in Wilmington, NC, at the Cameron Art Museum |
Have you seen a
whirligig recently? Everyone seems to have a particular idea of what a
whirligig is and when to use the word. Simply, a whirligig is an object
that spins or whirls. Individually as well as in groupings, whirligigs have become
noteworthy, particularly in the American South, as an artistic form of creative
expression.
A whirligig -- as fun to say as it is to see -- is a
whimsical, wind-powered creation that whirls and turns on a pivot. The term
dates to the fifteenth century and appears to have its roots in the Middle English word of
whirlegigg, which was formed from
whirlen (to
whirl) and
gigg (top). The term is applied to a variety of items –
living and inanimate objects.
Creation by Self-Taught Artist
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| Small whirligig by Simpson |
A whirligig is an inimitable creation by a self-taught artist
who has no formal
training – except for the whirligig that is a beetle, so named because
it
swims about in circles. With two pairs of eyes and clubbed
antennae, the whirligig beetle
lives on the surface of
water where it spins and spins. Otherwise, whirligigs are inanimate and typically
crafted by folk or visionary artists. The simplest wind-powered
whirligig is a pinwheel, which demonstrates an important feature: blade
surface. Although the designs of
whirligigs may be simple, some are very complex, particularly when a creative
artist such as Vollis Simpson of Wilson, NC, finds a “man or mule, hat or cat,
hidden in any castoff sheet of steel” and fashions it into a whirligig.
Components are
crafted out of wood, plastic, metal, and other materials, sometimes taken from
discarded objects to recycle their parts and extend their lives, and then hand-painted
to provide artistic expression. Antique whirligigs have been preserved
in museums as creative expressions of earlier generations, as described in
The New York Times. However, whirligigs
are making a modern comeback, with credit for reviving them during the 1980s
given to Ander Lunde of Chapel Hill, NC, who published eight books on how to
build whirligigs.
Literary Connection
A whirligig as an artistic expression is sometimes even literary.
For example,
Whirligigs is the title
of a collection of
twenty-four short stories by North
Carolina author O. Henry
(born William Sydney Porter) that also
includes the well-known “The Ransom of Red Chief.” In the collection, a lesser-known
story, which takes the title of “The Whirligig of Life” to express the whimsical
nature of life and relationships that change as the wind blows, recounts the
visits of a Tennessee couple to a justice of the peace to “divo’ce” unhappily
only to reunite blissfully the next day. In addition, Shakespeare uses whirlagig as a metaphor for “time” in
Twelfth Night when the clown Feste
states that “the whirligig of time brings in his revenges,” an expression we
know currently as “you reap what you sow.”
Sometimes whirligig is a label applied to a
person, such as in The Gambler by Tyodor Dostoyevsky, whose
character expresses concern that a stepfather “is going to marry that silly whirligig
of a Frenchwoman--that actress, or something worse.”
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Whirligigs stand guard over a field at the entrance to Fearrington
Village in Chatham County, NC |
Cultural and Educational Destination
More often the artistic expression is visual art – and a
tourist attraction. Sightseers enjoy watching whirligigs move as the wind blows and learning about the artists
who created them for fun. Some whirligigs
can be found at restaurants and in parks, and others adorn private gardens and
yards. However, they attract more attention when massed in collections. The
most famous location probably is the “
whirligig farm” on Wiggins Mill Road in
Lucama, NC, that had been constructed by Simpson on his land where more than
thirty whirligigs, some more than five feet high, once attracted
many visitors. Tourists are now directed to a new
two-acre downtown park in nearby
Wilson where these whirligigs have been designated to serve as a centerpiece to
help shape the city’s industrial artisan district and be a cultural and
educational destination. Wilson also holds an annual
Whirligig Festival in
November, and this event includes a whirligig building contest with Simpson as
a judge.
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| On display at Cameron Art Museum |
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| Small whirligig by Vollis Simpson |
Cultural Recognition
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| Work of a junkyard poet |
Whirligigs crafted by folk artists are also exclusive justification
for a cultural award or recognition. Although garden shops, particularly online
suppliers such as
Wind & Weather and
Plow and Hearth, sell mass-produced whirligigs,
the ones individually crafted by folk artists such as Simpson, whose work has
been profiled by Public Broadcasting System, are recognized for their cultural
contributions. Although Simpson was wittily labeled a
“junkyard poet” by The New York Times, he has been celebrated
by organizations such as the
N.C. Folklore Society for his “meaningful
contributions to the transmission, appreciation and observance of traditional
culture and folklife” and the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources that
presented him the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor.
Southern Living has also presented a
Heroes of the New South Award to Simpson for his contributions to art and
culture. In addition, his work is now part of the permanent collections of the
American Museum of Visionary Art in Baltimore, High Museum in Atlanta, and N.C.
Museum of Art in Raleigh.
When Simpson and his whirligigs were honored during a
fundraiser at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC, I visited to gauge the
interest and reaction of the museum’s patrons. I left with the feeling that
whirligigs tell an authentic story in our regional folklife. Although
whirligigs mass-produced in Asia with stamped and painted metal can be cheaply
bought, the true artistic ones – only the ones that connect to culture – hold value
in the American South.
