Last night I attended the DC premiere of a wonderful documentary called Beautiful Losers. I highly recommend this film – I’m still feeling the buzz of inspiration, almost 24 hours later. It’s about a group of punks, skaters, graffiti artists and other “outsiders” who start hanging around and making art together in New York’s Lower East Side in the 1980s – not because they have great artistic aspirations, but because making art is the only thing that doesn’t bore them.
In many ways, they eschew mainstream culture – but (and) in other ways, it’s their main subject; at one point, one of the artists, Mike Mills, says something to the effect of, “The mainstream is like my first girlfriend who dumped me, and broke my heart…and I never got over her.” The film is also a testament to the importance of community to artists’ development, and ability to work. Learn about the featured artists, and watch a trailer, on the film’s website.
The screening was part of a fundraising event for Pyramid Atlantic, a nonprofit arts center in Silver Spring, Maryland focused on hand papermaking, printmaking, digital arts, and the art of the book. There was a brief Q&A following the film with Martin Irvine, of Irvine Contemporary (a contemporary art gallery in DC), and graffiti artist/author/publisher/filmmaker Roger Gastman. Gastman, who grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, is making a documentary about DC in the 80s, with legendary (and previously elusive) DC graffiti artist Cool Disco Dan playing the role of tour guide. The film is slated to come out this fall; in the nearer term, Irvine Contemporary is launching a show June 20 called Street/Studio, “featuring works by artists who use the street and urban space as extensions of their studios, and who bring the street and urban sites into their studio.”
After the screening, which was at the AFI Silver, we all filed out into the lobby for a silent auction and reception. The auction featured work by some terrific local artists — Bridget Sue Lambert, Billy Colbert, and RVLTN to name a few. As everyone milled around, admiring artwork, nibbling on brownies and sipping wine, DC artist Tim Slayton was set up in a corner printing t-shirts. Tim is part of Truth Among Liars, a local artists’ collective. Here’s a short video of our interaction – he prints a t-shirt for me, and we talk about some of the ideas in the film (this is the first video I’ve ever edited, so bear with me!):
See also: More on guerilla art from the Creative DC archives
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That’s an awesome T.
One of the guys on the Disco Dan team is a coworker of mine. I know nothing of Disco Dan, but I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product and getting edified.