Trailer for Banksy’s new film. Incidentally, I thought it odd to see the Paramount logo at the outset but then realized my error. He is quite the prankster!
This post / half-assed review is coming in kind of late, considering I watched Beautiful Losers over two weeks ago, and the film has been screened many, many places since 2008, but dammit.. it just got released on Netflix / DVD a month or two ago, so here we are.
I’d been waiting on this film to be available in my queue for a while, and alas, was almost positive I’d be disappointed. While I am not (nor do I profess to be) entirely well-versed on the subject of late 90’s street-art, graffiti and youth subcultures.. something about the perfect storm of now-established “DIY” east / west coast artist profiles, candid interviews and plausibly esoteric dialogue about the “scene” back then seemed like it could potentially amount to some trite piece of documentary film-making. But no? It’s actually kind of good?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not mind-blowing, but it is far more entertaining than I expected. On the one hand, the film takes a tone that is largely self-congratulatory, though at once, anti-heroic in equal measure. On the other hand, that’s not a bad thing here, necessarily. There are some particularly nice moments of vicarious-nostalgia in the form of old footage and photos, along with some terribly asenine, yet profound comments made by many of the artists included. While the train of thought running throughout the film tends to meander a bit.. as a whole, the work stands up pretty well.  Also it’s worthwhile to see some meat given to the conceptual and visual coherence that a lot of these artists were presumably developing in parallel. I took specific interest in the likes of Geoff Mcfettridge, Barry McGee, and Steve Powers / ESPO. The work Powers did on the Coney Island signage is particularly wonderful.
In any event, I could go on but the film is simply worth seeing on your own. It’s quite a treat if you have the time.
Hah, seriously. There are no words. Relatedly, (I know I know.. way old by this point), I think the second video pretty much sums up the state of the nation two years from now, should the Palinites inherit the earth. Not to be outdone, let’s recall that Strongsville also made a very respectable showing a while back. Fair is fair.
Also I should add, Keith Olbermann: kind of annoying at this point. Just a little bit.
To my bewilderment, I was recently made aware that my logo design for Ashley May’s Canvasface was selected amongst a collection of over 5,000 submissions to merit inclusion in the newest edition of Letterhead & Logo Design (Vol.11). LL11 includes work from such firms as Pentagram, Sagmeister, Inc. and local heroes Design Army, who’ve done a bang-up job in designing the book and compiling the over 400 entries. I am thrilled and honored to hold company in the ranks of such talented folks.
Pictures (bad ones, at that) of my handiwork in context below.
Btw, if you’d like to own this hardback volume AND are the thrifty type, you can purchase the book on Amazon for way cheaper than off the shelves at Borders (or Walden Books if you live in Kansas).
Last Saturday I had the honor of being a participating artist in the 6th Annual Transformer Gallery Silent Auction and Benefit, held at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington DC. To my relief, my piece, “Equivalence” actually sold (and six bids above the starting bid at that!). Pretty stoked that I at least made back what I paid for in materials and framing. Oh, and then there’s the whole “somebody actually liked my work enough to pay money for it” which is always a nice feeling.
Anyway, just wanted to put the red alert out that I have in fact posted the piece that went into the auction along with another, more personal work under the featured projects section. Take a gander if / when you have the inclination. I have a few more projects / goings-on that I’ll be highlighting here in due time, once I catch my breath from the whirlwind that was October.
==================
On a related art note..and, while this isn’t a matter of immediate significance as such, I wanted to speak briefly about a particular website that has become a personal favorite of mine over the course of the year, (named rather curiously) But Does it Float?. Ostensibly, it takes the typical ‘blog’ format of presentation, with a more or less daily curation of images pertaining to fine art, design, anthropology, illustration, architecture and moving images.
To its credit, the site is short on (read: devoid of) criticism and manages to say a lot with a little. The minimalist black text on white background does a good job of recreating that similar feeling one gets walking into a sterile, white-walled gallery, complete with tiny museum plaques (set in Georgia, no less). At any rate, I’ve quite enjoyed the thoughtful selection of artwork and the pairing of rather enigmatic fragments of prose derived from assorted literary, scientific and philosophical texts to comprise the title for a given post, leaving the viewer to fill in the gaps. It is a refreshing and satiating respite from the usual blog junk out there and offers a bit more focus than the time-killing-eye-candy-wormhole nature of sites like dropular and ffffound.
All images property of Victor Alejándro Aguilar © 2010 unless otherwise noted.