‘BIG EYES’ vs JAMES BROWN ?
the JAMES BROWN, bio flick – ‘GET ON UP’ – wins hands down, no contest.
so does . . ‘THE DROP’ and of course, WES ANDERSON’S ‘THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL’ – is the loveliest of – them ALL !! !!
TIM BURTON . . at an advance screening of ‘BIG EYES’, DEC 13, 2014, NYC.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
‘BIG EYES’ – BIG FLOP.
of course, I was intrigued & happy to see ‘BIG EYES’. it’s a fascinating true-life story of deception, outsize egos, borderline autistics, gender domination, troubled marriages, an outsize con artist, brilliant showmanship, and last – but not least .. intellectual property theft (don’t get me started – photo copyright theft being one of my biggest issues & personal thorns), and most curious above all, and the least addressed aspect of the whole film & accompanying ka-babble – how and why – those previously reviled & spit upon, demeaned by the mainstream art world, kitschy BIG EYED WAIFS BY KEANE – so loved by the unwashed art masses – have not only prevailed, and need to be re-defined in art’s canon, finally endured to go on and worm their way into pop culture, big time. esp in the fields of animation, cartoon art and of course: Japanese anime. not to mention popping up the colorful trendy, wrapping paper I got on one of my Xmas presents this year !! (and, inside a book on quilts !!)
if you want to define ‘Post-Internet art’ .. look no further.
yes, the film is drenched in Panoramic retro-color, but when you come out in the same year as the most magical & brilliant, talented and gifted retro-color ‘THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL’ – if your storyline can’t sweep the cinematography off it’s feet – you’re looking like a mighty big loser.
and it’s not just the lame storyline, because there is a great great story to be told here, it all comes down to the clunker-of-junker of Mr. Burton’s directing, where one has to ask, new young blonde personal assistant “mid-life crisis” flame, and all – was his mind just not on the ball ?
could there be a worse match-up in movie heaven than AMY ADAMS and CHRISTOPHE WALTZ ? nobody in the world is going to disagree with me. CHRISTOPH WALTZ and AMY ADAMS were never, ever on the same page. acting-wise. even MR. BURTON referenced this, as if to, or probably . . hoping to ‘pre-empt’ the obvious – in fact it was the first thing out of his mouth: “was CHRISTOPH TOO OVER-THE TOP ?” – and then he shrugged his shoulders. no going back now, and the thing is, when you saw archival pix of the REAL IMPOSTER ARTIST/SHOWMAN WALTER KEANE running alongside the final credits . . . . he did look over-the-top, so was it AMY ?
let’s put it this way – she did a great impression of MERYL STREEP with a retro blonde haircut & make-up . .
there was absolutely no extra-terrestial radiance, no inner illumination of the real please stand-up MARGARET KEANE, in the building. nobody home. Elvis, I mean Margaret had not just left the building, she had never even knocked on the door. and god I so loved AMY . . in ‘AMERICAN HUSTLE’, so god of the movies – please forgive me.
you just could not fall into the movie – there was no getting past the cinematic conflict on screen – between the acting styles of these two. there was no chemistry, there were no sparks of life beyond these facade, Christph and Amy going through their retro masquerade at different speeds. a career downer for both, I think the blame has to fall with Mr. Burton ?
an Indie classic – no. nope. no way. but a fascinating art story – almost got told.
which is pretty is all pretty strange. Mr. Burton supposed to be such a brilliant director and all. great story and all. All I can say is the minute Mr. Waltz showed his face on the big screen – the whole theater burst out laughing out loud. we wanted Christopher to take wings and F-L-Y !! but it was all down hill from there., he never settled into the role. except maybe the ‘BIG LIGHT BULB GOING OFF IN HIS HEAD’ scene when he realizes, aha: the common masses of adoring fans who love the ‘BIG EYES’ paintings, but don’t have a dime to their names to buy an original canvas, can easily scrap together a buck, and buy a print. yep, everybody laughed the minute Christophe showed his face – it’s pretty damn basic obvious, a director either has to channel that huge great energy, or lose it. Mr. Burton lost it.
let’s face it when the 2 minute cameo of those 2 Hawaiian Jehovah Witnesses – are the most right on moments in a trumped-folly, you know ‘TWIN PEAKS’, ‘BLUE VELVET’ . . this is – NOT.
as for everybody saying Amy was so great.
all I can say is: go see ‘GET ON UP’ the radiant and illuminating film / story of the great JAMES BROWN. if you want to see great, cinematic character brought-to-life, a brilliant unfolding – this is your baby.
so, why is CHADWICK BOSEMAN- who plays, inhabits, projects with authenticity and verve .. the late great JAMES BROWN – not up for an OSCAR ?
shame shame shame on Hollywoood, and here they are all lamenting how racially un-diverse the Oscars are this year. and the most brilliant performance of the year – was right in front of their very noses. executive produced by MICK JAGGER, no less.
must be all those old foggies still creaking & creeping around. not quite behind the ball anymore, but well enough to drop a bad ballot or two. we have the same problem in the art world, so tell me about it.
I mean, not only was CHADWICK BOSEMAN a-l-i-v-e and truly James Brown kicking, but even in the short span of the movie we got an incredible insight into his darker sides, his complexity and ego tripping, as well as a deep understanding of where his music sprang from, a real nice cameo of deep South balck magic . . gospel church-going . . and a great great musical history picking up the trail, with a nice side dish of the nascent civil rights struggle going on in the background. we got to understand a compicated talented artist – in way that sad AMY with her hairdo never sparked for Margaret. and funny come to think of it, on eof th things that set JAMES BROWN apart – was just like WALTER KEANE, his innate flair for self-promotion & management. and, he JAMES, also had a dark twisty nasty side !!
throwing the whole thing off-the-charts to infinite greatness . . was the small (screen-time wise) but ultra-brilliant & way-inspired performance of a truly gifted . . BRANDON SMITH as LITTLE RICHARD !!
oh my god, and I thought I was a touched-in-the-head tarot card reader !!
ya gotta go see it.
the only flaw in the entire production was the way-off-his-mark, DAN AYKROYD as James’ real-life old-school Jew of an agent. what ?
MICK !! wtf – you can come up with a full roster of talented black artists, every which way and back and forth, including the gorgeous women in Mr. Brown’s life – but you can’t cast a decent old-school music talent agent ? Hollywood used to be full of them. guess they are all too busy being old foggies, bad voting, and apparently . . going extinct.
talking about which, going e-x-t-i-n-c-t . .
the real MARGARET KEANE is still alive and kicking. damn yes, that is her in the first moments of the film, sitting on a park bench in the very San Francisco park where Amy meets Christoph as Walter at a street art fair – where Margaret is trying to sell her big-eyed ‘selfie’ portrait/caricatures to ‘tourists’ !! she, the real Margaret Keane such a compeeling, poise I got distracted right away -who is that woman. then you see the archival photos and slips of ‘history’ trail past at the closing credits and you realize it was . . her.
tuns out Tim Burton actually knows her pretty well, and commissioned some paintings from her decades ago !!
damn damn damn in a world of increasing stupid-o . . can somebody please go and interview her & film her and let her for ONCE AND ALL – HAVE HER OWN REAL VOICE !! she’s old, but she’s got great posture, great spine and I bet the mystery of those haunting BIG EYES . . will slowly come forward if she can just speak for herself.
boy, talk about doomed, bad karma – what did this poor woman do in a past lifetime – that nobody lets her tell her OWN story !!
I mean, we can’t wait forever, or are we doomed to end up with a “NANNY PHOTOGRAPHER” – TAKE TWO ?!!
I mean it is kind of rich that NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC – JOHN CANNADAY couldn’t call it, no surprise there. . . what incredible, magical ‘legs’ those KEANE ‘BIG EYE’ have had. how interesting that her naive outsider ‘cartoon art’ – her ‘lost’ waifs live on. and on, and on. and how interesting the roll of her husband in their marketing, mass appeal, branding and almost damning promotion.
oh lordy, how the outsiders always come in from behind – to win the day.
I wonder if that’s what the art critics of his day thought of VINCENT VAN GOGH, or EDVARD MUNCH’S – THE SCREAM ? both very cartoon, comic book like. and of course that was the game. trashed by the pros, but living the afterlife – big time.
which brings us to ‘THE DROP’ – if you want to see just how badly MR. BURTON dropped the ball re a small ensemble film – beyond a bio pic like ‘GET ON UP’, go see ‘THE DROP’ – totally fell through the cracks – but bet it’s going to have a great long life, ‘legs’ !! on the small screen in your house.
and, if you want to see how just much magic and creative thinking-beyond-the-box was missing from ‘BIG EYES’ – well you know, a night at the ‘THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL’ – is just what the doctor ordered !!
should I start doing my hair up like TILDA SWINTON’S – or what ?!!!
don’t you just love when RALPH FIENNES says old people just have .. so much FLAVOR !!
ok, let’s be clear. I can say that – because I’M NOT . . . THAT – OLD.
but my god-given hair . . sure could rock like that.
somehow, apparently I too am doomed to be an outsider, no matter what.
artlovers, and all.
maybe there’s no (artistic) gain – without the (borderline autistic / social) pain.
MARGARET KEANE, THE NANNY PHOTOGRAPHER, and me. great. just great.
Tilda Swinton, move over !!
~’BIG EYES’ – BIG FLOP / ‘BIG EYES’ vs JAMES BROWN, by way of ‘THE DROP’ with a final stop at ‘THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL’ |
Posted in Movie Reviews, The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 16th, 2015, 11:50am
Don’t tread on my cupcake, don’t even think about it.
time to lighten up, world.
though still thinking on . . “BIG EYES”.
the Margaret Keane story as told by Tim BURTON, posting – next !!
vive les femmes !!
turns out a woman was behind it all, from the get go. wouldn’t you just know it.
and don’t tell me those once re-viled and de-rided Big Eyes, don’t . . have legs !!
those Big Eyes just keep on going, esp even more so, in the Digital Computer Age.
anyway.
for sure, when I see . . “everything is forgiven” ?? because here in NYC – apparently we don’t forget – the downed World Trade Towers, still showing up in our made-for-tourists – street art !!
a long decade . . after the fact.
and for sure, when I see international female world leaders photo-shopped out of national news coverage, because JE SUIS FEMME !!
I’m like, time . . to turn the record over, politics is so B-O-R-I-N-G.
red rover red rover, let the cutting edge ARTISTS . . come over !!
nothing like a little neo-hippie, sweet forest artistry to make a point – it’s a big world – out there, dudes. show some RESPECT for life. love, thought, and . . wisdom.
in a word: the future.
Australian artist JACKIE CASE, that means . . YOU !!
here’s to some well-drawn . . thinking.
not to mention: BIG EYES !!
welcome to NYC !!
‘JACKIE CASE: SOUVENIRS FROM THE MUNDANE’
JAN 14 – FEB 1, 2015
REBECCA HOSSACK GALLERY – 262 MOTT ST, NYC.
more: about the artist & the exhibit
JACKIE CASE, ‘Song Bird’, 2014. graphite on paper.
8-5/8 x 10-5/8 x 1-5/8 in.
talkin . . new age tech meets old school forest wisdom, crafts, and s-k-i-l-l-s.
and lives – to tell the story.
JACKIE CASE, ‘IVY’, 2014. graphite on paper.
8-5/8 x 10-5/8 x 1-5/8 in.
talkin’ . . BIG EYES – !!
JACKIE CASE, ‘Don’t Even Think About It’, 2014. graphite on paper.
8-5/8 x 10-5/8 x 1-5/8 in.
talkin’ about: don’t tread on MY CUPCAKE – ALL YOU DAMN, DUMB DUDES of the so-called world !!
don’t even think about it.
talkin: strong fist in a very – pretty package !!
yes . . powerful messages, do come in small, sweet – packages.
ancient proverb. new age package.
and no, I would not classify this, if pushed – as ‘cartoon’ art per se, more along the lines of graphic illustration, which should not be considered . . demeaning at all. s-k-i-l-l-s.
it’s a big art world out there, and we don’t need to fight about ‘intangible’ boundaries, and definitions.
though, if you consider the work of ANDERS NILSEN, long considered a very acclaimed contemporary cartoonist, and graphic novelist, and if you factor in that the the works of JACKIE CASE pack a a strong, non-verbal ‘message’ . . then, guess what: yes, cartoon art – on the very uber, graphic, detailed realist range ?
and, of course: VIVE . . LES FEMMES !!
all images from the gallery website.
~JACKIE CASE . . don’t tread on MY CUPCAKE |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 14th, 2015, 1:46pm
DEFINE: EXTENDED
‘EXTENDED’ . . BY A FACTOR OF THREE, or even FOUR:
THE ACTUAL EXHIBIT HAS BEEN EXTENDED, THE BIG HEAD – ‘BIG EYES’ STREET ART / TIM BURTON MOVIE – KEANE CONNECTION, THE WORLD TRADE CENTER GHOST IN THE SHAGAWAT STREET PORTRAIT – DATED 2014 (!!) (BIZARRE & UNBELIEVABLE) – AS ALL EXTEND TO: JE SUIS CHARLIE / PARIS, FRANCE MASSACRE AT CHARLIE HEBDO, A CARTOON MAGAZINE/NEWSPAPER – JAN 7, 2015
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT – ‘SELFIE’ at FREIGHT+VOLUME
the show has been extended thru SAT JAN 17th, 2015 – !!
FREIGHT+VOLUME – 530 WEST 24th ST, CHELSEA, NYC
and you begin to realize that the word . . LOST says it all, for JAN 2015.
in SHAGAWAT, a kind of ‘artistic’ lost & found, in ‘BIG EYES’, a lost identity, and of course in Paris, a huge loss of talent, voices.
all center on cartoon art – I dunno, but if you were playing cards, that would be some . . hand.
if you were writing code:
random connect>lost
if you were thinking about the so-called random universe, you would stop to . . ponder, at the beauty of science, fact & the . . tantric / divine c-o-n-n-e-c-t.
dedicated to the street art / cartoon artists of the world, and mostly by way of Jeffrey Shagawat, funny enough – how I stumbled on that. and his back room street art selfies.
Cartoons, ‘funnies’ – you got it.
Night in the Art World.
JAN 2015.
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘Photograph (by SHAGAWAT) of a caricature [of the artist himself, i.e. SHAGAWAT = selfie x selfie x selfie (!!)] . . drawn by a street artist’, 2014.
Photograph, 10 in. x 12 in.
NOTE: STREET ART, CARTOON ART . . BIG HEAD – BIG EYES . . HOLD ONTO THAT THOUGHT, for a moment, review of the TIM BURTON FILM, ‘BIG EYES’, THE TRUE KEANE STORY TO POST – NEXT.
AND TAKE A LEAP, into the New Year – sad as it is.
and why do we .. all feel so lost, and bewildered / duh.
artlovers has always a great fan & follower of cartoon art, and so, also with love for our many friends – in FRANCE.
NOTE: THE WORLD TRADE CENTER – THE TWIN TOWERS, TO THE RIGHT IN THE JEFFREY SHAGAWAT ‘SELFIE’ – STREET ART, CARTOON ART, ABOVE. even though the portrait is dated – 2014 !!
I was thinking ‘lost’, as in lost and found, thematically for the Shagawat show, but finding the doomed World Trade center Towers in this background – made my heart skip a beat.
a kind iof literal – lost & found ?!!!
SINGULARITY / SOLIDARITY – OF THE RANDOM ‘CHANCE’ CONNECT, ALL LINING UP LIKE . . DOMINOES.
A STALKING, HAUNTING . . MOMENT OF MAJOR ‘CONNECT’ / THE PROVERBIAL ‘DIGITAL’ . . GHOST !!
THERE’S GOT TO BE MORE THAN 3 DIMENSIONS OUT THERE, for sure.
NOTE: STREET ART, CARTOON ART. CHARLIE HEBDO, PARIS, FRANCE – JE SUIS CHARLIE.
CARTOON BY DAVID POPE – CIRCULATING WIDELY ON THE WEB
PHOTO: REUTERS via NEW YORK POST
PHOTO of JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘STREET ART PORTRAIT’ in his ‘SELFIE’ EXHIBIT, at FREIGHT+VOLUME – BY NANCY SMITH, DEC 18, 2014
~JEFFREY SHAGAWAT . . extended !! . . KEANE ‘BIG EYES’ / CHARLIE HEBDO |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 8th, 2015, 11:30pm
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘SELF PORTRAIT’, 2010
custom c-print, 30 x 40 in.
image: FREIGHT+VOLUME
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘SELFIE’
the opening reception took place THURS DEC 18, 2014 / 6-9 PM
the show runs thru JAN 10, 2015
FREIGHT+VOLUME – 530 WEST 24th ST, Chelsea, NYC
INTENSE, is not the . . . word.
complicated, mysterious, shifting, searching, intense, and ultimately: life-affirming . . .
the photographic complexity of JEFFREY SHAGAWAT’S world – moves in, and out of . . FOCUS.
A REVIEW . . & PIX – FROM THE EQUALLY INTENSE OPENING !!
photographer JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, at right . . takes time to talk with young photographer & fan: SHERRI, still in high school.
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT and BEN STILLER.
and that’s the way the opening rolled, no kidding.
i-n-t-e-n-s-e.
extremes.
just like . . the work.
MIZUO PECK, Jeffrey’s wife . . stands beside his show-stopping black and white ‘selfie’.
if she looks a little familiar – that just might be because she is !!
her pretty face, albeit with long Native American braids, colorful beads and a deer skin dress . . can be found several feet high on billboards all over the city right now.
MIZOU plays SACAGAWEA in . . NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM.
funny how SHAGAWAT and SACAGAWEA .. rhyme.
SACAGAWEA translates as ‘Bird’ and ‘Woman’ which apart from making her Birdwoman, in a season of ‘Birdman’ !! totally captures Mizou as she comes off in person: kind, brave, strong, very very graceful, with much inner poise, and one senses, also of soaring spirit. Sacagawea was the only female Native American scout on the legendary Lewis and Clark expedition, where she was termed: ‘calmness under duress’ – and she played a key and measured role even though she was barely 17. we got the feeling this might also relate to Mizuo on a personal level, though you do also get a little feeling there might also be some passionate ‘wildness’ going on behind that calm exterior, esp as one is told she is in many of Jeffrey’s photographs, and they can get . . well, racy. flirty. flinty ?
I mean, what’s the point of running into Sacagawea, if you can’t run with it ?!!
PATRICK GALLAGHER with MIZOU PECK . . at the JEFFREY SHAGAWAT opening.
Mr. Gallagher plays ATTILA THE HUN, mighty ruler of the fierce nomadic tribes, known as “barbarians to the Romans”, bye the way – in BEN STILLER’S . . NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM.
the show had a fierce side, too. both sides of the coin, gentle and fierce. definitely multi-layered.
friends of Jeffrey’s take in the work: JUSTIN BENDER and SHERRI Miller.
strangely, Sherri, was the name of the night.
JOHNNY ‘KIELBASA’, JEN SHAGAWAT, Jeffrey’s older sis, and DALE BOOKOUT.
JEN SHAGAWAT also looked to be of a very strong and colorful, complex personality, when I asked her what she did, she rather strikingly told me, in bold letters, that he was ‘LOST’ – !!
wow, I thought that was the best single response I had heard in many a year. that single word, uttered so forthrightly seemed to really capture, how we all feel – no matter really what you do or how you define yourself, or even how structured your life might be. the world we live in – is just so so beyond anyone’s control.
JEN talks to SHERRI, the young photographer . . notice the intensity of the JEFFREY SHAGAWAT self-portrait coming through.
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘(Self-Portrait) Bald’, 2010. Photograph. 30 x 45 in.
($3,200)
the prints themselves are beautiful products, no doubt about it.
from the press release: “SHAGAWAT employs a mixture of techniques, such as silver-tone, expired film, multiple exposures, and various cross processes – to achieve his singular vision . . . New Jersey-born Shagawat lives and works in New York City. He studied photography at the New School, where he developed an eye for portraiture and urban landscapes. Using vintage cameras, hand-printed processing and film, Shagawat eschews digital manipulation in favor of the traditional analog approach.”
“SHAGAWAT’S photographic tableaux includes friends and hired models, street denizens and family. In addition, the artist chose to document his struggle with brain cancer a few years ago. Having successfully come out of that nightmare with just a few scars, physical and mental, Shagawat looks at life’s moments as something to be taken in, captured.”
“When I look at my photographs I see myself and what my life was like in that moment, regardless of who or what is in the frame.”
to read more, and esp to see the photographs, without the ambient ‘noise’ and glare of the exhibition space . .
go to: JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘SELFIE’/F+V
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘(Portrait) Seizure’, 2013.
LUBA SHAGAWAT points to a more mysterious side of the artist’s . . work.
life. life force. journey. search. watching. moving in and out of focus, with eloquence, and often playing with . . well, fire.
emotion, desire.
ANASTASIA YUFEROVA . .
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘(Portrait) Eyes’, 2012. Photograph, 20 x 24 in.
($1,800)
for sure . . that’s a lot of ‘pop’, as in drama, color, and print quality – for the punch / $$$.
it also expresses the range in the work, some like this one have great . . heat.
while others, interestingly many on the more exotic themes, skewed . . steely, sharp . . and even, cold.
the inert ‘reality’ of standard conceptions of photography – was really manipulated.
often very theatrically.
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘(Self Portrait), Staples’, 2010.
a key image, and a very graphic one, that also manages to tell quite a story. with a beautiful, mysterious composition, to boot. and in this case, heat of emotion meets coldness of observation, and both . . both win. pressing up against each other in a strong-armed . . tie.
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘(Self-Portrait) Multi-legs’, 2009. Photograph, 30 x 40 in.
CANDIDO GONZALEZ and ENID HUNT in front of the JEFFREY SHAGAWAT photo, ‘(Self Portrait) Multi-legs’, 2009 . . . their on-point on-the-street-now, graphic urban style helps point out, those afore-mentioned forces at play here: namely, contrast. in and out of focus, graphic vs lost or mysterious, ambiguous narratives, heat/cold, depth of the artist’s approach, and ultimately, his: s-e-a-r-c-h.
another key image in story, this is the full image from the photo above.
everything changes, in this photo – with the aspect, the inclusion, the compositional and thematic focal point of an actual self portrait.
selfie, on fire.
DEZ and SHERRI . . another look, because turns out DEZ also has a claim to fame. He is an aspiring model, and yes he was just featured, talking about photographers, naked of course . . in RYAN McGINLEY’S recent show at TEAM.
MARIE FLAHERTY, JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, NICK LAWRENCE head honcho of FREIGHT+VOLUME, and MAIA LORIAN.
Maia and Marie are both actresses.
and I guess we’d be saying goodbye to a fascinating night, getting a little rare in Chelsea these days, at this point – except, the show had a surprise ending, and a very relevant one at that – talking . . culture buzz !!
funny enough.
namely, ‘BIG HEADS’, as in typical touristy caricature ‘portrait’ street art, I guess technically a kind of ‘selfie’ in it’sown right ?
vs ‘BIG EYES’ – yep, the amazing and twisty ‘KEANE’ story as told by TIM BURTON – and now showing in NYC in a limited release.
and yes, I did see it !!
but it’s going to be hard to write about. the story is fascinating but the filmmaking is not.
is probably . . the best way to say it.
how fun. sure enough, in the backroom, as a kind of postscript . . come to LIFE !!
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT presents some startling, straight-on photographs of ‘self-portraits’ . . he had commissioned of average anonymous New York City street artists of . . HIMSELF.
hmm, a selfie of a selfie of yourself ?!! they were great, how they caught different aspects or times of his strolls through the city . . in the slightly various styles, but all with with typically big-headed, big featured expressions.
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘Photograph of a caricature drawn by a street artist of the photographer’, 2014. Photograph. 10 x 12 in.
($1,400)
this one was done in CENTRAL PARK. dude does like hats, doesn’t he.
JEFFREY SHAGAWAT, ‘Photograph of a caricature drawn by a street artist’, 2014. 10 x 13 in.
($1,400)
so, between running into BEN STILLER, SACAGAWEA, not to forget ATTILA THE HUN, the style-happy street kids of the moment, and some big ole ‘BIG EYES’ !! right spot-on, on the week’s cultural thermometer, not to forget, some really great, super complex / intense art, asking the deep questions, with some real ‘flirting’ thrown in for good measure – I’d say that was quite some night . . at a gallery, or what !!
just the way they used to be, the real fun gallery openings . . not too long ago.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH – UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.
~JEFFREY SHAGAWAT . . ‘SELFIE’ / F+V |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 27th, 2014, 12:22pm
HARK, MERRY XMAS – TO ALL . .
FROM: BEN FURGAL, MAGIC PICTURES / PHILADELPHIA
yes, HARK . . rhymes with art. for sure.
~HARK, MERRY XMAS !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 25th, 2014, 12:05pm
RIP – DBA – THE FINAL GOOD-BYE
DEATH BY AUDIO – PUTS ON – DEATH BY ART DBA
A FINAL GOOD-BYE ART SHOW . . TO THE LONG TIME DBA VENUE on SOUTH 2ND
A GROUP EXHIBIT – CURATED BY MARK KLEBACK and JOE AHEARN
NOV 6-22, 2014
49 SOUTH 2nd St, Williamsburg, BROOKLYN
RIP DIY DBA / DEATH BY AUDIO, the free-wheeling, cutting edge venue – done in by . . VICE.
EDAN WILBERT
OLIVER ACKERMANN founded DEATH BY AUDIO in 2002, a small handmade effects pedal company – providing effect pedals for LIGHTNING BOLT, WILCO, NINE INCH NAILS & U2 . . .
by Spring 2007, the space was also being used as a venue for underground music and art, run by EDAN WILBERT and MATT CONBOY.
DEATH BY AUDIO/wiki
DBA UPDATE> – JUST IN FROM MARK KLEBACK:
“the DBA GUITAR PEDAL COMPANY . . has a new space on HALL ST in the NAVY YARD.
MATT & OLLI are putting out new pedals for the holiday season and keeping busy … most everyone who lived at DBA went their separate ways, most of them moving in with significant others (!!) – I know MATT wants to open another venue down the road – we’ll see what happens.”
JOE AHEARN co-curated the DBA show with MARK KLEBACK.
JOE is also well known as a curator for Clocktower at Pioneer Works in Red Hook.
JAY HEISELMANN
JAY HEISELMANN, free-fall wall assemblage in the DBA communal kitchen, a bolt of red energy sweeping through the creative chaos.
it’s also called: thinking outside the box.
whoosh – the DBA communal space.
scene of many parties no doubt.
DBA FLAG by NICK CHATFIELD-TAYLOR
DBA living quarters – were up the stairs.
it was definite: high energy. free-form. no holds barred.
it was like a giant maze – hallways leading every which way, in every direction.
JAMIE DRAKE WALL MURAL- the DBA art show covered all the available space, esp in the hallways.
JAMIE DRAKE had several murals, all of which were very powerful.
you can also see the ‘DBA VIRUS’ by SHMOAK coming in on the right – those small curious cubes, of gold. industrial meets expressive . . explosive.
JAMIE DRAKE also did this high octane wall mural in the communal area, note the kittens.
high voltage commutes with kittens, priceless.
JAMIE DRAKE is an artist from Virginia and a friend of Oliver’s.
JARED BOWDITCH – a strong wall mural, no doubt.
another strange intense, highly patterned wall mural – painted in a most original grid / non-grid way – by SHADYYOUTH / @shadyyouth
talking … ‘industrial’, and . . . ‘light’.
BOTH.
a narrative, real time, real world. photographic.
really and truly . . photogenic.
a magic, even romantic yet hard-core black & white graphic soundscape installation – by LOUISE FOO + MARTHA SKOU.
in fact, the Big Apple – as seen from Williamsburg / Brooklyn – over & across the East River.
going really, gold-en, and . . ‘industrial’.
GRILLZ installation – by ROOPA VASUDEVAN / @rouxpz
at left: jay-z, “hard knock life” (ghetto anthem).
at right: rick ross, “hustlin'”.
ROOPA VASUDEVAN, the notorious b.i.g.,”juicy”.
ROOPA VASUDEVAN, the total wall installation.
ROOPA VASUDEVAN, ‘rick ross, “hustlin'” graphic.
what I loved best were the graphics: great off-the-wall pastel colors, micro-print shadow ‘text’ designed to die for, and far-out in your face ‘object’ reality contouring.
bold. but not bold. almost cartoon, but NOT. almost hyper-real, but – not.
fascinating, gestural, yes.
just sitting right down straight on that cutting edge of . . fab. far-out conservative, very . . nervy. contradictory.
nice, very very nice.
that’s what I call – great d-r-a-w-i-n-g.
draftsmanship. whatever. graphic design. architecture.
so we’re gonna give the last word on the DBA / DEATH BY ART – DBA / DEATH BY AUDIO art show . . . to a woman !!
hoo-ray, MAGGIE BURNSED.
wall mural on a door – MAGGIE BURNSED.
what I liked most about it – was how it just was. no big deal, no big statement, quiet but oh so pulsating, so expressive, so temporal, and . . SO WILD.
like a hidden secret . . it spoke it spoke of life force, and creative energy. in the world, the ebb and flow all around us, cosmic and organic – we take a pen and make a mark, and a flower grows, a thought takes wings. as shimmery and complex as a butterfly, as a puff of (reproductive !!) pollen. the faint code . . behind the DNA.
C-O-D-E.
P-O-L-L-E-N.
W-E-B.
INTERCONNECTEDNESS.
note: there is a center, a purple passionate growing, squirmy hieroglyph – to this organic gossamer matrix.
just placed, as if by accident, by random gesture.
a big thought just growing on a . . dirty communal door in a place doomed to die by Vice.
what more can you say ?
how about ?
B-I-O !!
the mother of us all.
the mother lode.
what the hell does that say ?
STAY (??)
GREAT !!
DBA FOREVER.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~FINAL GOOD-BYE: DEATH BY ART / DEATH BY AUDIO |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 24th, 2014, 8:53pm
RIP DBA / DEATH BY AUDIO – DEATH BY ART
along one wall ran a big selection of archival photos from the storied DEATH BY AUDIO . . nights.
a rip-paced history . . through their various venues, and stagings.
it was called: R.I.P. D.I.Y.
D.I.Y. FOREVER. amen.
because the place was surely . . a-r-o-c-k-i-n’.
APACHE BEAT, GLASSLANDS GALLERY – photo by JACKIE ROMAN.
CHAT LOGS, DEATH BY AUDIO – photo by WALTER WLODARCZYK
JEFF The Brotherhood, 285 Kent – photo by KEITH MARLOWE
EDAN WILBER, 285 KENT – photo by KEITH MARLOWE
EDAN WILBER and MATT CONBOY ran the DBA events – (underground) music and art.
read more about DBA: DEATH BY AUDIO
MATT CONBOY had a video installation in the DEATH By ART show – a drum battle royale . .
archival footage of an apparently epic battle of the drums . . GREG SAUNIER of DEERHOOF vs BRIAN CHIPPENDALE of LIGHTNING BOLT.
GREG SAUNIER . . video by MATT CONBOY
I bet that DBA Conboy has a ton of video gold – stored away, talk about . . D.I.Y. !!
just thinking, maybe that’s one of the layers of ‘inspiration’ behind those gold ‘viruses’ that crept in all over the place, more like cubic ‘smoke’. than anything else, or anything evil. contagious, or hacked.
kind of ‘static’ but moving, as in moving in all over the place – wide open, as in ‘variable’ – site specific – art ‘music’ . . by SMHOAK, whoever you are . .
can’t keep thinking about them. such a far-out multi-layered concept.
BRIAN CHIPPENDALE . .
GREG SAUNIER . .
GREG SAUNIER . .
BRIAN CHIPPENDALE – CHIPPENDALE is also very well known & respected, and indeed with great awe . . on the underground art scene for the blow-apart alternative world art works, mostly silkscreen prints and collages, and his epic narrative ‘comic books’ . . which he has shown in NYC – at CINDERS, including that flat-out feverish warning in crayon colors, of a society in meltdown . . that was shown this past summer at the big Cinders 10th Anniversary group show at the seaport, just before all hell broke loose: the three E’s . . . ebola, environmental entropy, and . . extremist militants slicing their way, in an ironic – well: tragic and sick, as in sad / twist on D.I.Y. – one journalist at a time . . onto the global game board.
D.I.Y.
rockers vs fascists, the ultimate showdown. long live the rockers.
death by art . . f-o-r-e-v-e-r.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~R.I.P. D.I.Y. / D.B.A. |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 16th, 2014, 7:12am
RIP DEATH BY AUDIO – DEATH BY ART / DBA
A GROUP EXHIBIT CURATED BY MARK KLEBACK & JOE AHEARN
NOV 6-22, 2014
49 SOUTH 2nd St, BROOKLYN
DBA
‘FUCK YOU SHANE’ – NICK KUSZYK
detail, ‘FUCK YOU SHANE’ . . NICK KUSZYK aka R ROBOT
CHRIS UPHUES . .
CHRIS UPHUES . .
CHRIS UPHUES . . DBA MAN
note: it’s raining gold cubes.
metaphors . . abound.
love . . their scale – so ‘nano-like’.
love how they switch out from dark to light. so smoke-like. for cubes !!
dba viruses by SMHOAK.
CHRIS UPHUES . . DBA GRAPHIC
CHRIS UPHUES . . DBA GRAPHIC
CHRIS UPHUES . .
oh oh – note the left hand side – ‘virus’ creeping in.
dba ceiling virus by SMHOAK.
smhoak viruses started showing up . . everywhere, in other places when you least expected it.
very very .. very. good. intense. strange. industrial, dynamic. counter-intuitive . . the gold sheen really made the game plan . . take off.
smoke signal gone industrial. from ‘puff’ to ‘cube’.
MATT CONBOY of DEATH BY AUDIO – has the SMHOAK virus over his shoulder . .
PRESTON SPURLOCK . .
cryin’ baby eyes !!
WAH – WAH.
RIP DBA.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH. NOV 8, 2014
~DEATH BY KUSZYK, UPHUES, SMHOAK & SPURLOCK . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 11th, 2014, 10:31pm
RIP DEATH BY AUDIO – DEATH BY ART
A GROUP EXHIBIT – DBA
CO-CURATED BY – MARK KLEBACK and JOE AHEARN
NOV 6-22, 2014.
49 SOUTH 2ND STREET, BROOKLYN.
I saw all the buzz about the big VICE party.
all I can say is . . gentrification is a snake that eats its tail.
first come the hardcore artists, and then the hyper-marketed ‘hipsters’ take over, and the rents go sky-high. hopefully the artists, and musicians move on, to tell another tale, and bring another forgotten, and neglected neighborhood to life.
so, yes . . time to post the pix of:
DEATH BY ART – the last hurrah / closing party exhibition put on by DEATH BY AUDIO . . which lost it’s space to VICE – which bought up the whole entire block.
it’s a sad scene when a hardcore space . . that screamed raw life and talent . . goes under the never-ending real estate knife.
even the trash on the outside said . . wild life and wild days moving on, money moving in.
if mailboxes could speak . .
I was thinking . . VICE should have built their new corporate headquarters around DEATH BY AUDIO, and left it as is – as a little chapel to real artistic freedom, but who am I.
but seems nobody else had the vision . .
or desire. and in come the celebs and out go the hardcore artists, meaning of course obviously the musicians and the gear geeks, too. etc. etc.
damn. we want their money, but we don’t want them. it’s a hard thing to figure out, look at Miami Basel.
so, DEATH BY AUDIO – STAY SALTY . . is all I can say.
death to art by vice, greed . . pumped up ‘style’. pumped up ‘cool’. savvy packaging, dumb-ed down content, whatever. a kind of pseudo jargon ? of the street, but I never really felt it was cutting edge.
it’s just the way of the world. when the masses collide, authenticity and originality . . take a dive.
the deathly dark doorway in, was . . fab.
a road map to DEATH BY ART, presented by RIP DEATH BY AUDIO. DEATH BY VICE.
taken done by VICE, how sweet, not. surprised, not.
maybe somethings are just meant to have life, take on a spark in the moment. some of the best things – they are not meant to last forever. their profoundness in fact, often comes from their very fleeting, and therefore very free . . nature.
but still, people were feeling it. were feeling . . dark.
were feeling . . loss.
the road map to the show was printed on newsprint, printed in black and handed out for free. it is actually a pretty nice piece all on its own. an archival artifact, a graphic design with ‘soul’, I guess the word is: character.
a defining Brooklyn . . moment, that’s for sure. it had a very solemn ‘cast’.
inside it was dark, too.
with an amazing hardcore ‘industrial’ light fixture – by SEAN MCINTYRE hanging in the immediate entryway.
now, that’s . . cutting edge.
a programmed ‘gamelan’ – by AARON TAYLOR KUFFNER stood in the small foyer.
all the while it was pitch dark, and so this is a photo – illuminated by flash, sometimes you just have to be there. it was eerie, and gothic. cathedral-like . on the underground scale of things.
it was really a statement, an experience . . to walk past the dark decline on the street, into the small dark entry with a very beautiful artist-made light fixture overhead, casting a pale glow, and an artist-made gamelan, moving gongs and all, playing all by itself, no people. it was definitely art, music, and ‘machinery’ . . invention. inquiry. statement. purpose. poetry.
the ancient percussive instruments . . played by themselves.
all you had to do was choose a button and press it, to set them in motion.
all I can say is: S-K-I-L-L-S.
damn. if skills, isn’t one letter away from . . KILLS.
there was a real sense of history, as well.
these instruments seemed quite old and authentic . .
pots and pans and . . the origins of music. did come to mind.
and, well . . male / female – as well.
not to forget the big gong at top.
the digital presence was divined by the small glow of blinking ‘machinery’ lights behind, like I said it was dark, and the sense was really of exquisite surround sound, no people. lots of history, lots of art – entrancement, is all I can think of.
MARK KLEBACK . . co-curator DEATH BY ART.
his website: KLEEBTRONICS
here’s a few images, just the tip of the iceberg.
Kleback – is apparently some kind of central . . hub to the scene.
cog. gear . .
ZORB – image: KLEEBTRONICS
MOSHMURAL – image: KLEEBTRONICS
THAT SHOULD KEEP YOU BUSY, for awhile.
more pix of the ‘DEATH BY AUDIO – DEATH BY ART’ show . . posting shortly.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH – unless otherwise noted.
PHOTOS TAKEN ON SAT EVENING – NOV 8, 2014
~DEATH BY . . VICE ? |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 10th, 2014, 6:03am
wow. I didn’t realize til just now, that CANADA . . and NADA rhyme.
there has to be something to that, no ?
at any rate, the other artist to watch out for during MIAMI ART FAIR WEEK 2014, is also at NADA . .
the amazing LUKE MURPHY, who is kind of a poster child for the explosion of mental creativity that happens when deep thoughts, about the universe and ‘being’ . . of course (!!) hit hardcore hands-on . . digital knowledge.
I’ve been fascinated by Luke’s work ever since I happened upon his early solo show ‘Slope Of Anxiety’ in 2001 at the very earliest CANADA gallery venue, when it was located, in the aftermath of Pseudo’s ‘Quiet’ – in the basement of that grimy storefront building on Broadway, deep downtown . . where we had staged that blow-out million dollar Millennium Party, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC . . and I was collecting the rent for Josh.
looking back, that seems so apt, so auspicious . . so meaningful, so MAGIC, so TRUTHFUL, so RANDOM !!
so how the Universe – works.
to stumble across LUKE – like that . . in the ashes of that . . huge, futuristic, 99+ artist, wired, early social network grid of a creative art party / blow-out.
LUKE was like the single ‘seed’ of the future, peeking it’s head out – from the burned-out chaos.
it’s hard to define the realms that LUKE MURPHY traverses, except that the interactive ‘random’ animation – that appears as an ongoing ‘banner’ at the top of this page, pretty much . . says it all.
we don’t live in a ‘solid state’ . . in any more !!
and everyone is . . connected.
LUKE will be showing 3 (very different) digital projections at the CANADA, NADA MIAMI BOOTH 2014 . .
he writes that they are “about drawing, suspended potential, and trying to recognize truth, i.e. pretty lines and colors on a small screen.”
!! x !! x !!
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Watching Potential’, 2014
LUKE MURPHY, ‘KuniyoshiX Genz’, 2014
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Test Patterns’, 2014
you can actually, watch ‘Test Patterns’ on his website: ‘Test Patterns’/Works
it’s not just the color intervals, and how that ‘adds’ up to: BLACK, and . . the ‘VOID’ – but it’s also about the speeds at which ‘events’ happen, and with Luke that means randomness, and ‘generated’ numbers.
the other super interesting piece on that WORKS PAGE, is . . ‘Bad Eye Good Eye’. not only . . as an animation, and that it . . steps into real world ‘bio’ human imagery, but also because – it serves as an example of Luke’s . . dark side !!
!! x !! x !!
watch: LUKE MURPHY, ‘Good Eye, Bad Eye’.
so what I mean, is Luke also moves, image-wise – between the totally abstract, and the real (human) world.
in this universe, it’s all inter-connected – particles, patterns and . . humans. birth and decay, repeat.
oh yeah, I forgot: reproduce – i.e. pattern.
birth, reproduce, decay.
you can wander around in his multi-faceted world for yourself: LUKE MURPHY/LUKELAB
but maybe, the text in the ‘Happy Sad Bones’ project . . will help shed some light ?
and yes, that little green glass frog . . emits radioactive signals, which is picked up by the microphone, which in turn generates the ‘random’ numbers. of the digital animations.
that little frog is actually a piece of vintage, so-called ‘vaseline’ or uranium glass . . !!
it’s part of the . . RANDOMNESS – section
LUKE MURPHY . . in his Harlem studio, NYC. SEPT 1, 2014
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
LUKE MURPHY – artist, magician, code developer, pattern animator, randomness-maker, philosopher . . !! x !! x !!
all I know is . . this is a guy who lives 9 lives, and if half of them are SECRET, the others are surely: ‘half life’ – as in . . the ‘longevity of radioactive particles’.
in other words:
in the huge world of ‘art’ today, witness this Miami Art Fair week – LUKE MURPHY is a one-of-a-kind, in other words: he is a . . singularity.
so check out, Luke’s . . ‘projections’ at the CANADA / NADA MIAMI 2014 BOOTH.
~LUKE MURPHY . . at CANADA at NADA |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 3rd, 2014, 6:39am
