DaVinci Art Alliance presents 'Rocky (Re)Runs'

Exhibition co-curator and artist Andrew Hart asks, in the show’s catalog, “Is this training run an encapsulation of a particular time, or is it timeless? Is Rocky Balboa one man? Or Everyman? Does he symbolize personal triumph over grinding oppression or was he just exceptionally lucky? Does he lead others to fulfill their own destiny or to achieve their own salvation?”

These questions are at the heart of Rocky (Re)Runs and of what co-curator and artist John J. Pron calls “its diverse, multifaceted exploration of many aspects of Rocky’s Philadelphia.” It’s about the icon and the topography of the neighborhoods where he trod, literally and figuratively.

Citywide special

The work is wide-ranging in content. Gabriella D’Angelo’s holy-rolling Stations of the Cross, chintzy faux-stained-glass translucent stickers depicting Saint Rocky and his apostles, lines DVAA’s windows.

D.S. Nicholas’s mixed-media Adrian’s Run takes an architectural and feminist look at the Rocky phenomenon. In all, Balboa gets examined more closely than a boxer at a weigh-in.

Hart blends data and regional proximity (to the Rocky statue, no less) in a live map and training montage that runs around the gallery’s walls, marked by cut-paper running Rocky silhouettes. It’s a testament to how close each Philadelphia region is to the myth — a sensation not unlike one’s soul drawing nearer to the sun.

Hart is also responsible for a floor-sized container with bricks pulled from the side of 1818 Tusculum Street in Kensington, the site of Rocky’s and Adrian’s first home. The material acts as a king’s tomb for the boxer’s praying public.

Pron’s highway-dotted Northern Liberties: Immigrant Haven is even more personal, as it tells stories of his own family’s ties to the Stallone-penned underdog tale, a chapter of local history (re)lived with the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory.

A video installation shows the literal: in 1974, Philly filmmaker Garrett Brown — inventor of the Steadicam — filmed a demonstration reel featuring his girlfriend running up the Art Museum steps; that short paved the way for Rocky’s legendary climb. Both are shown here.

And then there’s the Dadaist: Joe Fattore’s installation Profane Rocky recalls Marcel Duchamp’s Étant Donnés. A faceless figure behind a nearly closed closet door raises its arms as if cheering on a football team. Both door and mannequin are dotted with bullet holes, as is a static-filled television set.

Of this fusion between art and reality, Duchamp would be proud.