Live From Barney’s New York, It’s Saturday Night!

As the U.S. economy continues to struggle, many retail shops are featuring familiar, traditional holiday themes in an effort to bring back skittish shoppers. However, Barney’s New York, long known for veering towards offbeat and iconoclastic displays that reflect its trendy, but not patrician, clothing and accessories.

In that vein, Simon Doonan and Mark Vitulano, Barney’s creative director and production director, respectively, chose to bedeck the storefront windows at its flagship Madison Avenue shop with ornaments that depict characters from the Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch-comedy series. The timing coincides with the upcoming 35th anniversary of SNL.

Doonan and Barney’s creative team culled years of past SNL episodes and selected 21 characters, including program founder Lorne Michaels, to feature in a storefront ornament display. The company hired sculptor Colleen Rochette, a Brooklyn-based artist and sculptor, to fabricate the projects. The project represents her fourth Barney’s holiday displays; past subjects included “Peace” signs and “green” Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer displays.

Collaborating with artists Allison Corrie and Kimmy Scufaro, Rochette decided to build the ornaments with paper mache. Using lightweight MDF, they cut out large circles to serve as “skeletons” for the ornaments. They wrapped the skeletons with a heavy layer of bubble wrap and densely covered them with masking tape. Thinner layers of bubble wrap and tape created their facial features. To create the hooks, they drilled holes into the top, looped plumber s tape through and secured the ends with clamped "S" hooks. After applying paper maché, she primed them and applied an acrylic-paint coating. For accents, they applied an array of decorative glitter or gems, and, for the crowning touch, toppers that comprise thin sheetmetal decorated with gold- or silverleaf.

Two of the larger figures include Chris Farley’s Dave Foley character, which spans 6 ft. tall x 4 ft. 4 in. wide, and Gilda Radner’s Roseanne Roseannadanna, which measures 5 ft. 8 in. tall x 8 ft. 3 in. wide. Other iconic characters depicted include Don Novello’s Father Guido Sarducci, Dana Carvey’s Garth Algar of Wayne’s World fame, and Tina Fey’s depiction of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

For more information about Rochette s work, visit www.colleenrochette.com
 

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