Christy Rupp (b. 1949)

…An equally airy, zany and tragic structure is the catchily titled Runaway Factories Become a Bobsled‒Rust Belt, which has the graceful intricacy of a Nancy Graves, plus content. (The belt moves, and the factories turn into a bobsled with no brakes.) In Unsolid States ‒ Sub Machine Culture which could be about the Third World or about Flint, Michigan, the guy lucky enough to get a job is impaled on the machine while a little sports car leaves the scene of the crime like a local dictator or corporate oligarch. —Lucy R. Lippard, "Christy Rupp: Natural History Meets Coney Island and the Sandinistas," Natural Selection: Sculpture by Christy Rupp. (Buffalo, NY: Burchfield Art Center, 1990): [11].

Buffalo is among several cities surrounding the Great Lakes that comprise the “Rust Belt,” named for the declining industries of steel production, vehicle production and heavy manufacturing. Automated manufacturing and new technologies forced layoffs and plant closings, which instigated company relocations and population decline in the 1980s. The serious topic is first disguised in comical, cartoonish elements. Once ensnared, we realize that Christy Rupp delivers a grave message condemning corporate disregard for the effect on so many lives. (Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections and Charles Cary Rumsey Curator, 2011)