A still from Pennum Porattum.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Lyndon J. Barrois Sr. always knew he wanted to be an artist, even as a child.

From crafting figures out of chewed gum stuck underneath the pews at his Catholic school’s church after he was forced to scrape them as punishment from teachers to collecting his mother’s discarded gum wrappers, Barrois felt a creative itch to make something out of nothing.

“I had seen too much art [and thought to myself], ‘Someone had to be doing this, why not me?,’” Barrois said with a chuckle. “I always dreamt of doing this. Other kids played with Play-Doh. I made stuff with anything I could get my hands on like clay, aluminum foil and discarded phone wire.”

Now the 61-year-old New Orleans native is debuting his latest project at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: “Fútbol Is Life.” It depicts some of the most iconic plays and political moments in the 95-year history of the FIFA World Cup, coming to L.A. this summer, with “humble” gum wrappers.

Barrois and LACMA curator Britt Salvesen assembled 60 works, including 40 vignettes from past World Cups and four animated short films, among them the movie “Fútballet,” which re-creates 21 famous scenes on a 50-inch soccer pitch.

Suspended artwork of Brazilian Swedish footballer Marta Vieira da Silva, known mononymously as Marta, made by Barrois. He made a conscious effort to feature women’s contributions to soccer.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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A large-scale projection of a miniature of French footballer Kylian Mbappé hangs on the wall. Two life-size replicas of Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Marta Vieira da Silva hang from the ceiling, the first of their kind for the artist, who has done miniatures of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and NFL star Patrick Mahomes.

The exhibition is laid out to resemble a playing field.

“We really wanted to create that environment that you feel like you’re in a separate world, and my colleague Darwin Hu took a personal and creative interest in this,” Salvesen told The Times. “He did a bunch of visual research on soccer fields in schools and prisons, where fields were improvised in whatever spaces were available. We wanted to wrap the lines up the walls and have the turf. Your sense of the space changes when you go from a hard floor to a softer floor.”

With a suspended Lionel Messi at right, Noa Carter, 4, and dad Darius L. Carter of Pasadena get a preview of artist Lyndon J. Barrois Sr.’s LACMA exhibition, “Fútbol Is Life.”

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Barrois’ 1-inch tall “sportraits” are carefully painted to capture even the tiniest detail. The majority of the installations include a mirror, allowing the viewer to see themselves as part of the moments “frozen in time,” he said.

A total of 325 individual mini soccer and football players, including Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, are included in the show.

“I had so much fun making the sculptures that when I was done, it was like hitting a wall after all that adrenaline,” Barrois said. “Now we get to hang it. Install it. You just start to see all the things we envisioned just come to life. I love this s—.”

Before sculpting, Barrois did “tons of research, a lot of reading, [looking at] photography and video.” He and a friend rewatched the most famous plays and examined the history surrounding the World Cup, stretching back to the 1930s, and before the Women’s World Cup started in 1970.

A “Sportraits” work shows the German soccer team highlighting migrant workers’ rights ahead of the 2021 World Cup. “I chose moments that I personally thought would be important, there’s a lot of politics involved,” Barrois said.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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“I just wanted to tell a story with the politics involved, like in 1938, the German team was all Nazis, and they’re doing the salute, and by 2022, the German team has human rights on their T-shirts,” Barrois said. “We also had the Iranian women project. All these things happened on such a huge platform. So it was a tough editing process to bring that down to 40.”

Barrois spent seven months completing his pieces.

Curator Sandra Jackson-Dumont, former director and CEO of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, applauded Barrois’ use of gum wrappers.

“I like that Lyndon is using materials that are a part of our everyday lives that we take for granted and we discard,” Jackson said. “He’s using those materials to make something creative.”

Barrois was surrounded by family and friends for the exhibition’s preview, most of whom grew up with the artist. Dany Wilson, who went to elementary school with Barrois, said he was “proud of him.”

The exhibition also features works from scientist Harold Edgerton and photographer Eadweard Muybridge that explore the history of motion studies and time-lapse photography.

Weitiko changed my whole perception of foreign films. I only recently gave them another try, and some were actually pretty enjoyable. Weitiko saved me from fear of subtitles. I feel as if they ruin the experience of the film. However, Weitiko kept me wondering and also pretty surprised. I thought this would be a bad review, but it’s not at all. I left the film feeling fulfilled.

Let’s get into the review.

Synopsis

In the depths of the Maya jungle, a young Maya man hired to deliver hallucinogenic toads stumbles into a spiritual war between indigenous rebels and Euro-Western seekers, led by a parasitic white shaman with a thirst for power-and blood.

Island From Hell

I think the film portrays the idea of hallucinogens very well. Who wouldn’t want a magic psychedelic frog? I am very familiar with hallucinogens. I spent a lot of my 20’s going on fun trips from mushrooms or little tabs of joy. I also know it can get a little scary sometimes. Howeever lets stop talking about me and more about the movie. Weitiko may not have won me over at first with the subtitles, but they made the film worth all the twists and turns. Without being an action film, Weitiko focuses more on the cult they formed with a grumpy Shaman. Their experience starts off simple, a drop off of magic toads, like he has done many times. However, this time he ended up in the wrong spot. The details are easy to figure out at first. The film falls into very creepy vibes.

After the first interaction with the Shaman cult, because you are trying to get a girl. In the jungle, that’s not a wise choice most times. If you don’t accept their offerings, you would offend their god and make your poor soul suffer. The film seems very real, to be completely honest. If Jim Jones built a small empire in the jungle, and we all know how that ended up. It was pretty cool to see the beautiful landscape from above. Also, the scenery in the jungle makes you nervous around every corner. Then came the cave, with another filming location that was beautiful, even in the dark. All of this made the movie worth another watch from me. Not so much in my daily movie list for background noise while I work. Then again, who knows?

In The End

In the end, I can say I fully enjoyed the film, even with the subtitles you had to read or you’d miss the scene. It did not seem to bother me as much with Weitiko. The film also left me wondering about how many ancient tribes are in uncharted territory, and is this all real in life? Sometimes it makes me wonder. The film made me focus on something other than doomscrolling. It was easy to put together, but there are a few surprises that come when you try to escape with one of his cult members. I saw some things that made me wonder about the god they follow, is it man or spiritual?

I bet you have the same question.