The Extraordinary Mr. Qwerty

Melbourne-based artist Strambini redefines the "thinking cap" metaphor in this visually dynamic debut. Mr. Qwerty, who loves to tinker, keeps "his ideas under his hat," quite literally. His bowler hat opens to reveal scientific instruments that provide visual evidence of the mechanical inclinations of his mind. For all his powers of invention, Mr. Qwerty fears "that people would think his ideas were strange, and he felt completely alone." He fails to notice that other people wear hats, too%E2%80%94boaters, fedoras, cloches%E2%80%94with hinged lids that flip up to expose their own passions, whether for exploration, aviation, chemistry, food, or even butterflies. "But when his ideas escaped, as ideas often do," writes Strambini, "they GREW, and GREW, until they were SO BIG... that something had to be done about them." Strambini's playful renderings suggest an engineer's plans, scribbled in charcoal-colored pencil on a putty-and-cream background and enlivened by red and blue detailing. Mr. Qwerty's magnum opus is shown to be an enormous, bird-shaped, Rube Goldberg contraption that distributes ideas (in egg form) to the masses, subtly putting forth the idea that creativity and intellectual exploration create an atmosphere that fosters more of the same. Ages 5%E2%80%938. (Nov.)