The first hint that Jack Jiggles’ new exhibition might live up to its name comes before you even step inside. Walking up the front steps of Foyer, a pink Victorian home-turned-gallery at 135 Park Ave., visitors are greeted by a full-size outdoor fan painted in bold colors. Inside, the entry hallway—the foyer itself—is lined with refurbished fans hung neatly in a row. But continue into the main room and a towering wall is covered in a collage of spinning blades, both literally and physically blowing you away.
“Only Fans,” on view through Oct. 26, features vintage electric fans that have been collected, restored and reimagined by Jiggles, a former electrician with an eye for old machines. “I’ve always loved going to thrift stores and flea markets and finding old things,” he says. “I’ve always loved old fans, and they’re always seeming neglected.”
Many of the exhibition’s fans hum with new life after careful restoration. Jiggles replaces knobs, plugs and cords, aluminum bases are polished, motors are rewired for safe operation and decades-old paint is stripped and replaced with high-gloss finishes. Some remain in their original hues—quiet, simple forms that don’t require bright colors—while others sport chicken head knobs, originally intended for guitar amps, paired with a primary colorboard of red, yellow and blue making it look like a clown waving “hello” as it oscillates.
“They were made in a way that they were serviceable,” he says. “It’s very therapeutic to bring them back to health, give them that chicken soup and send them out of hospital.”
The result is a room full of machines brought back to their full glory, each spinning with both history and personality. “I’ve loved fans for many years, but I’ve only been working with fans a few years,” Jiggles says. “I was an electrician for 25 years, and I’m kind of tired of going into crawl spaces.” It was that long career in electrical work, fused with his love of old machines, that has allowed him to turn practical knowledge into art.
The show’s curator, Jaime Bull, says the idea first took shape last September. “He came up to me at the opening [of another show] and said, ‘Jaime, I think I might have a show for you, but it has to be in the middle of summer because it’s gonna be fans. We’re gonna turn this place into a wind tunnel.’”
When Bull later visited Jiggles’ workshop, the title practically wrote itself. “He has hatchets, axes with painted handles, a collection of box cutters and levels,” she says. “All these things that are so beautiful they could be their own show, but we decided to focus only on the fans. Then I was like, ‘That’s it. That’s what we’re going to call it: Only fans.’”
“Only Fans” also marks a milestone for Foyer as the gallery approaches its second anniversary. “It’s been just so amazing,” Bull says. “It feels like Athens is supporting it and people are enjoying it,” she says of the gallery.
Jiggles’ revived machines, spinning with both history and personality, feel like a fitting metaphor for Athens’ creative energy: always turning and always catching fresh air. And if the past two years are any indication, Foyer’s future is sure to keep the city’s art scene feeling fan-tastic.
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