David Choe is known for his rough, rugged, and raw approach to art making while at the same time creating beautifully somber and mesmerizing paintings, watercolors and of course, his trademark outdoor work on walls. Last night I was fortunate enough to attend the private opening of Choe’s highly anticipated Los Angeles homecoming, Nothing to Declare, at infamous UK gallery Lazarides‘ LA pop up gallery in Beverly Hills and all I can really say is “wow”.
I’ve seen David’s work on the streets and in galleries and museums for years now and have grown accustomed to his frenetic “in your face” style of painting. But what I saw in Nothing to Declare was something new from Choe. A change in pace or life experiences after traveling the world non-stop has probably been the biggest contributor to this (relatively speaking) newly developed, and ultimately perfected, style.
On Monday night I was fortunate enough to attend the Los Angeles premiere of Banksy’s directorial debut Exit Through the Gift Shop and I must say I was thoroughly entertained and pleasantly disappointed at the same time, more on all that in a minute. The film premiere was held at downtown’s historic Los Angeles Theater, amidst a throng of celebrities (both actual and pseudo), artists, filmmakers, tastemakers, hanger-on-ers and people like me. Under the evening’s pale glow and the bright lights of the theater marquee a smashed limousine and taggedtruck lined the red carpet where spray can girls provided writing tools; in the main entrance a ski-masked piano player greeted attendees with old-timey tunes; upstairs a caged Tweety from Banksy’s Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill sat and stared out longingly; more ski-masks at the downstairs bar where masked cocktail waitresses served drinks as cops danced and CCTV cameras kept their eyes on you; basically the perfect setting for a film filled with this much hype, hope and possible hoax. All in all it was an amazing night of art meeting film, where else would I be able to have a spirited conversation with Shepard Fairey and New York’s Jonathan Levine about the film before being joined by Adrian Brody and getting geeky about his upcoming Predators? (Thanks to AngeliqueGroh for making it so.)
With the ornate theater’s seats completely packed to the gills, the curtains came up to a thunderous ovation and we were on our way. Almost more comedy than documentary, the film starts off with the charming and obsessive video taping of Thierry Guetta (who would later come to be known as Mr. Brainwash) as he follows street artists in their element such as Invader, Mr. Andre and Shepard Fairey (they even licensed footage of Barry McGee from our own art film Beautiful Losers) before hooking up with the grand daddy of them all, Banksy. As luck would have it, Thierry turns into an accomplice of sorts for Shepard and the elusively camera shy Banksy (his face is never shown and his voice is altered in the film) as they embark on their notorious art making missions worldwide. Constantly filming the art in action and everything in between, Thierry ends up with hundreds upon hundreds of DV tapes of two of the most sought after street artists ever and is tasked with making a film of it all. Fortunately for us, Thierry is not a filmmaker. What he initially comes up with is a jumbled mess of a movie, a random mish-mosh of images and sounds that doesn’t seem to go anywhere in particular. Upon his first viewing, Banksy decides to take matters into his own hands and takes the tapes to have a go at it focusing on Thierry as the subject of the film who Banksy himself describes as “a lot more interesting than I am. So now the film is kinda about him.”
With the film on hold and with Banksy’s blessings, Thierry begins creating his own brand of street art in the streets of Los Angeles. And with the the reluctant help of RogerGastman, as well as Shepard and Banksy, Thierry’s work culminated in his own massive art show in the summer of 2008, Life is Beautiful (coverage here). Thierry quickly turned into an overnight sensation, becoming the next street art star everyone wanted a piece of. A construct of his own ability, hype and sincerity, the Frankenstein monster known as Mr. Brainwash was born. And this is where the story truly begins to unfold.
What Banksy does in his version of the film is extremely entertaining, complete with side splitting humor and human despair, but more importantly Exit Through the Gift Shop raises questions about the legitimacy of street art, the artists creating it and the real context behind it all. You may leave the film with questions of your own but I left wanting to see more from Banksy, both as an artist and filmmaker, while reconfirming my suspicions of Mr. Brainwash, both as the non-filmmaker and artist I believe him to be. Ultimately, and in true Banksy fashion, the joke is on us as a film that was supposed to be about Banksy is not. I highly recommend being fooled yourself.
“I went minimal for this show, a departure from my usual chaotic display. But there was a theme and concept for this show that I stuck to. All photos were shot from a moving car, and all hung in a straght line.”
Last week Ed opened his latest photo show The Seconds Pass at Culver City’s Roberts & Tilton to the usual large gathering of skaters, photographers and art appreciators alike. And what we all saw was a show that was slightly different for Ed, as in streamlined opposed to his signature clustering style, more “in the moment” snapshots and far less nude/explicit imagery than what viewers have grown accustomed to over the years. All in all, Ed’s The Second Pass is definitely worth a second pass.
See the deliciousness that was last weekends 1st LA Street Food Fest at their newly created Flickr page. Yeah it’s true, many people were pissed because of the (up to) two hour waits in lines at some of the more popular trucks and many more were pissed that they didn’t even get a chance to step inside the event (capacity was quickly reached). But if you and your friends were savvy enough to understand the concept of “divide and conquer”, have ever been to Coachella, or waited in line for beer at Dodger Stadium then you knew what to do and what to expect. All in all it was a fun and sun filled Saturday afternoon eating, sharing and walking with thousands of fellow hungry Angelinos. Congratulations to Sonja and Shawna for their tasty success, LA is looking forward to a 2nd helping of the Street Food Fest (hopefully) soon.
A couple of weeks ago NYC lower east sider and Ito came to Los Angeles as a man on a mission: catch Thom Yorke performing new material on Friday, Sunday and Monday; and open his own solo photo show on the Saturday night in between. Missions accomplished. On display at Fullerton’s PÄS Gallery was a sampling of photos Ito snapped while traveling the world as Damon Dash’s personal photographer as well as a personal collection of images shot during the summer of 2009. From Jay-Z to Joe Pesci, twins to transvestites, the visuals captured by Ito’s eye are more than worthy of a trip to Fullerton. EVERYBODY SOMEDAY runs through November 8, 2009 at the PÄS Gallery.
Ito and his niece Bea posing amongst his photos at the PÄS Gallery
Sorry for the posting delays this week but I had the unfortunate illness of a weekend hangover that lasted into this week. Bouncing back from alcohol poisoning used to be so much easier when I was a young chap. Anyway, enough with the excuses and now onto the creative business…
You may remember a few weeks ago I mentioned a film to be on the lookout for called Tokyo!as part of my first Two Trailer Day Thursday segment. Well as luck would have it and through the courtesy of Giant Robot’sFilm Matters series, last night I was able to attend an advance screening of Tokyo! and it’s three short films directed by visionairies Michel Gondry, Léos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho. From Gondry’s initial mix of youth and whimsy and how they interact in reality in his short “Interior Design”, to Carax’s outrageous reimagining/ode to Godzilla with “Merde”, to Bong’s restrained poetic tale of a hikikimori (shut-ins who have dropped out of the world of social interaction in favor of confining themselves to their apartment) who longs for someone on the outside in “Shaking Tokyo”, this three piece tale full of humor, humanity, and of course, Tokyo proves to be a film definitely worth visiting.
And not only was the film an absolute treat in itself, but the audience was also treated to a Q&A with director and star of the film’s first piece “Interior Design”, Michel Gondry and Ayako Fujitani (beautiful in person and in the film by the way).
“Interior Design” Director Michel Gondry and star Ayako Fujitani during the Q & A.
Among the highlights from the Q&A:
Gondry was the last director to come aboard the project despite being arguably the most well known of the trio and jokingly stated that maybe he had the “smallest budget to work with” since he was the final one to join.
Each short is roughly 30 minutes in length. But upon completion of each segment, each director would “fight” for additional seconds added to their piece.
The order of the three shorts was not pre-determined prior to filming, but rather found through editing the entire film.
Without giving away too much, actress Ayako Fujitani at one point in filming was painstakenly painted blue from head to toe for special effects purposes but many of those scenes were cut from the film.
You can be arrested in Tokyo for filming on the street.
Another film rumored to be attached to Gondry, Masters of Time and Space, will not be happening with him directing.
One of Gondry’s favorite collaborators is Spike Jonze who made a short film in a hotel with him, his girlfriend at the time, Spike’s brother Sam Speigel (a.k.a. Squeak E. Clean of the N.A.S.A. crew), and Sofia Coppola, in which they would film a scene and pass along the dv cam with the latter not knowing what the other had shot except for the final frame in hopes of continuing the story. What they came up with was “absurd and probably not enjoyable by audiences.”
(click image to see more of the Obamas on election night)
With the election now over, do you still find yourself needing that over saturated Obama fix? Yeah, me too. Thankfully David Katz, photographer for Obama for America, took an amazing series of candid photos of the President-elect and his family on election night. The photo set on Flickr allows you to relive that magical evening that started with a prayer in a little hotel room in Chicago and ended with me drunk off of Moosehead Light in a seedy motel on Sunset blvd. while partying with this hot young lady. You betcha!
The paint is still drying and the time is almost upon us. The highly anticipated show will open tomorrow night at the Laforet Museum at 6pm! Like the sign says…
ESPO vs. Valentino? Find out what it’s about in a few days!
Steve Powers, a.k.a. ESPO, has long been one of my favorite artists for both his sarcastic signs and clean lines. Along with the rest of the artists putting together the show, the studio gangster is currently holed up in the exhibition space cooking up punchline after punchline. When he’s not perusing the aisles of Tokyo Hands of course. Here’s the hand made myth himself along with Jo Jackson, Aaron Rose, and Yours Truly.
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