This weeks should just be called RAPID FIRE week because half of the show is devoted to questions and topics you listeners asked us on my Facebook page… they’re all awesoRARAPID FIRRRREEEeeee! A new character gets introduced whose only interested in one thing, French animation astounds us, and we talk about a documentary on Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki that Rob and I saw.

Annotations:

 
“The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness” clip

 
“The Little Prince” trailer (French)

 
Check out more of your hosts:
Stephen Brooks (@RubberOnion)
Rob Yulfo (@RobYulfo)
Pat Ryan (@TheBadPatRyan)

And please Rate/Review us on iTunes
… and Rate/Review us on Stitcher while you’re at it! (=

The post Studio Ghibli / Hayao Miyazaki documentary “The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness” & trailer for “The Little Prince” appeared first on Artiholics.

Ai Weiwei The Fake Case, is the second in what looks to be a possible series of art documentaries about China’s most famous artist, Ai Weiwei. Filmmaker Andreas Johnsen seamlessly picks up exactly where director Alison Klayman left us at the end of her award winning documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.

After being released from an 81 day government detainment we are launched right back into Weiwei’s world as he struggles to balance being a father, an artist, and a strong political voice; all while living and working under constant surveillance of repressive communist regime which has taken away his passport, and wants nothing more than to silence him.

AI WEIWEI THE FAKE CASE  has it’s US debut this Friday (May 16 – May 20, 2014) at NYC’s IFC Center, where director, Andreas Johnsen will be in attendance for Q&As all opening weekend.  Advanced tickets for the premiere went live last night and ARE AVAILABLE HERE.

If you are like me, you will do yourself a favor and watch the first documentary Ai Weiwei Never Sorry (currently available on Netflix Streaming) before hitting the theater, as it completely sets up the story, and this film doesn’t waste time with exposition. It goes ALL IN straight from the jump.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

The two films are seamlessly meshed.  So seamlessly in fact that because I watched them both back to back on my iPad in bed last night I am almost a little blurry as to which events happened in which film.

Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry ended with Ai  being released and being out on a $1.5 Million bail for alleged tax evasion, which as said in the trailer above, isn’t a real thing in China.

If you recall at the end of the first film we found him released and returning to his compound at night, surrounded by reporters in the dark, lit up by flashes and camera lights.  He had a government gag order that barred him from interviews so he apologetically made his way through the crowd and closed the metal door behind him, and that is where we were left.

Trying as much as possible to resume as much of his life as he was legally allowed to while suffering from sleeping disorder and memory loss, he began re-bonding with his son after his three month absence.  His world had been rocked, as he realized the truly scary “nightmarish” power of the government, who when the cameras were off made it perfectly clear to him that they didn’t have to give him his passport back, they could rearrest him at anytime, and that he was still being watched 24/7.

Much in the way former hackers who’ve infiltrated government websites are forbidden from operating computers, the verdict was still out as to the possibility of  Ai Weiwei resuming his online presence.  For a man in his 50s, you will never find a guy so social media savvy.  He is hooked into twitter (https://twitter.com/aiww), and has used it’s power beyond what any other artist has thought possible.

With 245 Thousand followers, and having posted over 106 thousand tweets, he is tuned in.  He also always has a film crew following and documenting him, he documents his experiences with a smart phone and iPad himself, snapping pictures constantly.  I can only imagine how a guy that plugged in must have felt stripped of a huge part of his feeling of who he is when he was placed in a white room with no WiFi.

When someone has that sort of fan base, and the news comes out that the government charged him $1.5 Million to be released, they come to your rescue.

His bail was paid by donations, either mailed to his studio, or tossed over the studio walls.  Crumpled bills and paper airplanes sailed into his garden.  Unfolded and unwrinkled the bills totaled up to cover the amount he had needed to be released.  He was humbled, and overwhelmed by the power the internet wield.

Like countless artists before him, he turned his suffering into beauty with is series of six perfectly scaled down hyper-realistic sculptural dioramas depicting the six parts of his daily life during his 81 day imprisonment  in a taped up box of a room with two fatigued guards watching him day and night while he ate, slept, and shat.  The creation of which is chronicled in the film.

The six pieces, titled S.A.C.R.E.D., premiered during the Venice Biennale and is now on view at the Brooklyn Museum in his current show titled According to What?

AI WEIWEI THE FAKE CASE screenings in NYC start Friday, May 16th, 2014 at IFC Center and end Tuesday, May 20th. Only 30 screenings will be available, so get your tickets now.

Not in NYC?   AI WEIWEI THE FAKE CASE may be coming to an arthouse theater near you, here is a current list of upcoming playdates in the US.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Ai Weiwei New Documentary Picks Up Where ‘Never Sorry’ Left Off appeared first on Artiholics.

HBO’s newest artist documentary  Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman premieres tonight (Monday February 24th) at 9:00pm. Directed by New York based artist Mickalane Thomas, who only last month had her solo exhibition Origin of the Universe at the Brooklyn Museum, Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman paints a riveting and emotional portrait of her mother and longtime duende, Sandra Bush.

Featuring intimate interviews with “Mama Bush,” as well as personal and archival photos, the film celebrates this mother-daughter reconciliation as Sandra Bush achieves a measure of celebrity posing for her daughter’s most famous paintings.

I had the pleasure of meeting Thomas years ago during her residency at the Studio Museum of Harlem. Eloquent, hard-working, well spoken, she eagerly talked to me about her creations, all the while inserting each crystal into her paintings by hand, back in the days when she didn’t have the assistants that come from the acknowledgment and recognition of her work that she now has.

The Brooklyn Museum exhibit was a sparkling exhibition of Thomas’ plethora of talent. I have a penchant for glitter and shine; as I was walking through Thomas’ exhibit, a patron noticed my colorful sequined outfit and gleefully asked me “Are you part of the art?”. “Why yes I am.” I replied to her compliment. However the shimmer and rhinestone splendor aren’t the only things that draw me to Thomas’ work.

Her style is amazing, delving into a formal training that touches upon centuries of art history. Thomas is well versed in the art of art; beautifully informed, her skillful and thoughtful sense of technique, texture, composition, and of storytelling are all evident in her body of work.

Too many hip young people thinking of themselves as edgy artists disregard form, narrative, and color theory, but they don’t have much to say. Thomas is brilliant and poignant in her use of archetypal imagery: notions of Buddhism, influences of Adrian Piper’s political collages, classical painting, retro design, feminism, pulp pop culture, are all featured in her art.

The heartbreaking documentary tells the story of her mom’s survival of years of domestic abuse. Sandra Bush, a former fashion model, is well versed in being a muse. The love her daughter has for her makes one realize why Bush is such a symbol of revelry and strength in Thomas’ work.

Her mom’s arm was mutilated by her husband, he carved his own name into her flesh, scaring her for life. But Bush, a true survivor, transformed this marker in her psyche to be a reminder of the love she has for her son, who shares the same name as his father. All these human experiences lends themselves to the content of Thomas’ art. Thomas really is an artistic genius; she has the alchemical magic of transforming pain and hardship, into true beauty.

Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman

First airing (tonight) on HBO on Monday February 24th at 9:00pm.

Play times after the premier as follows:
Mon, February 24 – 9:00 pm
Tue, February 25 – 4:15 am
Wed, February 26 – 8:00 pm (HBO 2)
Thu, February 27 – 4:45 pm
Should you wish to see the film after the above times, it will also be featured at HBO ON DEMAND and HBO GO.

Written by Betty T. Kao

The post NY Artist Mickalene Thomas’ Emotional HBO Artist Documentary appeared first on Artiholics.

I was fortunate to get a intimate sneak preview screening of HERB & DOROTHY 50×50 at the SEE.ME gallery last week.  This is the follow-up documentary to 2008’s award winning HERB &DOROTHY(add this to your que!).

The original documentary recounts the amazing story of a New York couple, Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who on a NYC postal worker and a librarian’s salary (her income went to expenses, his to buying art)  managed to amassed one of the largest collections of minimalist art ever, and fit it all in a one bedroom apartment .

In the original film SPOILER ALERT Herb & Dorothy donated their collection to the Washington DC National Archive.  In the new film we catch up with the collecting duo and find that the archive didn’t  have room for the entire collection.  The accept  half of the work and for the other half they come up with a proposition.  A 50×50 concept, to donate 50 pieces, to 50 museums- thus breaking up the massive collection into 50 separate collections.   50 COLLECTIONS – ONE MUSEUM PER STATE –  FOR ALL 50 STATES!
View the Trailer.

I got to see the film and then a Q & A with Dorothy Vogel and the director Megumi Sasaki.

Director Megumi Sasaki fell in love with their story, and had to put it on film.  She succeeded.

Dorothy Vogel fielded multiple questions from the small audience at the screening.

“The first film was about us building the collection, the second one is about how we gave it away.” – Dorothy Vogel.

I will write more about this experience next week on ARTSUCKS.com, with more photos and details and the questions  I asked, as well as her answers.  Until then I encourage you to see it, it opens today at the IFC Center in Manhattan.  The director will be there as well as some of the artists who are featured in the film including Christo, Charles Clough, and Martin Johnson.  On Saturday & Sunday Dorothy will be there as well.  Here is a list of showtimes and in person appearances over this weekend at the IFC Center.

Fri Sep 13

5:20pm: Q&A with director Megumi Sasaki and artist Martin Johnson

7:30pm: Introduction by Christo and Q&A with Sasaki

9:40pm: Introduction by Sasaki

Sat Sep 14

3:10pm: Q&A with Sasaki and Gail Stavitsky (Chief Curator of the Montclair Art Museum)

5:20pm: Q&A with Sasaki and artist Charles Clough

7:30pm: Q&A with Sasaki and subject Dorothy Vogel

9:40pm: Introduction by Sasaki and Vogel

Sun Sep 15

3:10pm: Q&A with Sasaki and Vogel

5:20pm: Q&A with Sasaki and Vogel

Written and Photographed by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post Herb & Dorothy 50×50 Opens Today – The Follow-Up Documentary appeared first on Artiholics.

If someone mentions the “Up” documentary series to you, and you haven’t got a clue what they are talking about, you have some catching up to do.  In 1964 a documentarian named Michael Apted filmed a group of 7-year-olds in England for a film titled “Seven Up.”  All were from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and each had a different dreams for the future.  Some were born rich and at 7 already had their route to college mapped out, some were living in orphanages.

The documentarian has come back and interviewed this group of 14 kids every-seven-years since, and we have watched them grow through these documentaries.  Each addition to the series has new footage of the participants now (many reluctantly) and what they are doing and have done in the intermediate seven years, how their lives have progressed (relationships, jobs, kids, etc.).  It is a marvel of editing as it beautifully intersplices between the various previous documentaries to show how they and their ideals have changed (or in some cases stayed consistent), as well as how they’ve aged.  It’s an amazing series that really examines full lives of ordinary people, not just one summer of seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped, but the real- real world.

The first one I saw was 42 Up, 15 years ago when it came out.  I then watched some of the older ones (you can find them online and on Netflix).  7 years later in 2005 49  Up came out, and then last year 56 Up when they were all 56-years-old, which I was highly anticipating, but never got to see on TV (they are made for British television), but was recently released to Netflix Streaming. If you are wondering if this series is any good, 56 Up has 100% on RottenTomatoes.

I highly recommend you add 56 Up to your Que, hell, even if you aren’t a documentary fan there is scene where one of the characters takes his family to a Kenny Scharf Exhibit.  Something for everyone.

Once you watch it, it will give you something to look forward to in 2019 when they all turn 63.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

The post 56UP The Original Reality TV Is Back appeared first on Artiholics.