DoN posted a 30 second video on YouTube of the Super Mario Brothers music which is enchanting and magical; using the score from the video game soundtrack and sound effects from character/avatar interaction with puzzle elements in the game, the music is post-post-post modern. The video is just part of the Golden Calf exhibit in the fabulously dark installation of paintings, photography and sculpture about decay, destruction, nausea and mysticism. DoN found the art to be emotionally raw and psychologically dismal with elements of claustrophobia, isolation and estrangement; Hagit Barkai’s “Vomitous” is awesomely powerful, the paintings are Bacon-like in their facility, the subject charged with feelings of fear, powerlessness and despair, the paint application is expert. The artists of Golden Calfare establishing New Philadelphia as the art center of the region, unafraid to tackle the more difficult apects of modern life.
Brian Billingsley’s “Homage to Me” video and “Untitled (Saturn Devours His Son)” oil on canvas in the Golden Calf Show at Crane Art Center.
Weird little blobby things were all over the place.
DoN LoVeS the Yoshi Island Video installation by Brian Franklin in the Gray Space’s side room, a perfect execution of mutlimedia music and visuals filling the space with a futuristic soundtrack, all of the art in the rest of Golden Calf benefitted from the music. Created for Super Mario Brothers video game the music is 4 soundtracks playing simultaneously, simultaneous overlapping loops of bloopy tones creating a modern sound design installation with late 20th Century video game music repurposed into new art. As game technology advances and leaves artifacts behind, Franklin rescues the musical artifacts like a modern day monk saving information in illuminated manuscripts. The music stand with the score displayed elevates the piece to Wagnerian dramatic heights developing a sense of nostalgia for a time when video game technology was new.
On the way home DoN wandered into the new Comcast building and just happened to be there as an elegant party was going on – a herd of men in suits with gray ponytails and a flock of ladies in Prada and Manolo’s munching on canapes and sipping wine – for the premier of the world’s largest high definition LCD TV screen in the sprawling lobby. The wall looks like the paneling in the rest of the room when the show’s not on but magically transforms into hyper-realistic video causing DoN to wonder if he was witnessing real actors scrambling up the wall, dancing to The Mashed Potato or swinging from cables ala Cirque du Soliel. The color, vibrancy, choreography and special effects are truly a gift to the city. The sculptures of people traversing beams high up in the soaring atrium are amazing as well with stereotypical workers metaphorically balancing life and commerce above the lobby floor.
Sculpture in the Comcast lobby.
These are not real people – HD LCD Dancers doing the Mashed Potato @ Comcast.
Sunday afternoon was the opening of Philadelphia Sketch Club‘s Artists and Poets: Image and Word show. The concept of the show is to get painters to create a painting based on a poem and have poets create poems based on paintings and vice versa. The opening, organized by Richard Beldyk, featured many of the poets reading poems which are displayed along side the paintings. There are many outstanding paintings and poems by Laura Jean Zito, Don Meyers, Doris Peltzman, Pete Quarracino and many more. Reading the poems while viewing the paintings is a rare experience but hearing the poets and other readers perform the works aloud is soul stirring. DoN‘s painting is based on Henry Martin‘s anti-war rock song “Column of Light” which Henry sang accompanied by his guitar.
Henry Martin on Forbidden Drive
After Artists and Poets, Shoshka and DoN moseyed on over to Chestnut Hill to videotape a performance in the park by the afore mentioned singer/songwriter Henry Martin. Without any amplification, Henry rocked out his original compostions which filled the Wissahickon Creek valley with songs of love, unity, peace and a strange little ditty called “Stranded in Albequerque with a Corvair“, with a group of enthusiastic fans cheering him on including artist Charles Cushing, artist Jed Williams, ceramics artist Alyson Bartle (Henry’s wife) and many of Henry’s painting students, Henry sang more than an hours worth of original songs. The music played until the sun went down and the fire-flys came out, a truly magical time celebrating the Summer Solstice. Watch for announcements of videos on YouTube and MySpace.
Enter Digital @ Off the Wall Gallery @ Dirty Frank’s Bar
DoN reminds you that the Enter Digital Show is continuing at Dirty Frank’s @ 13th & Pine Streets. Rick Wright won an award for most avant garde for his cell phone photos. The gallery is taking orders for prints of varying sizes for all the artists pieces including DoN‘s “light beings (Dora & Pablo)” which previously won first prize in Philadelphia Sketch Club‘s Absolutely Abstract 2007 show, view a video of juror Bill Scott‘s comments on abstract art and DoN‘s winning piece on YouTube and DoNShOp.
Bill Scott @ Philadelphia Sketch Club’s Absolutely Abstract 2007
