Archive for May 26th, 2011

May 26, 2011

Lowbrow

hot rod by robert williams

Lowbrow describes an underground visual art movement that arose in Los Angeles in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it is a sarcastic comment.

Some of the first artists to create what came to be known as lowbrow art were underground cartoonists like Robert Williams and Gary Panter. Early shows were in alternative galleries in New York and Los Angeles such as Psychedelic Solutions Gallery in Greenwich Village, La Luz de Jesus, and 01 gallery. The lowbrow magazine Juxtapoz by Robert Williams, first published in 1994, has been a mainstay of writing on lowbrow art and has helped direct and grow the movement.

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May 26, 2011

Todd Schorr

clash of holidays

Todd Schorr (b. 1954) is an American artist and one of the most prominent members of the ‘Lowbrow’ art movement or pop surrealism. His work combines a cartoon visual vocabulary with painting methods of the Old Masters with large canvases (+80″), and is darkly satirical.

His piece, ‘Clash of Holidays,’ aroused controversy when it was exhibited in 2002. It depicts Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny locked in mortal combat. Santa’s wielding an axe, and the rabbit has a knife. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Baby Jesus, who’s munching on an ear from a chocolate rabbit, stand by. Schorr was accused of blasphemy by civic leaders in South Florida. ‘It was just a joke, really, like lot of my paintings that poke fun at things,’ comments Schorr, who completed the piece in 2000, then sold it to Courteney Cox.

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May 26, 2011

Addictive TV

addictive tv

atv

Addictive TV is a UK film remixer and chop-up duo formed in 1992. The DJ/producers and audiovisual artists are the team behind Optronica – the visual music and VJ festival held in London. In 1998 they produced Transambient for Channel 4 in the UK and from 2000 – 2005 produced the ground-breaking DJ:VJ music series Mixmasters for the UK’s ITV1. In 2003, working closely with the R&D area of Japanese manufacturer Pioneer Electronics they became instrumental with the testing and development of their DVD turntables, the first being the Pioneer DVJ-X1 released in 2004.

They are known for their bootleg film remixes, and in 2006 they became the first group to officially remix a Hollywood film, reworking New Line Cinema’s dance-centric Take the lead into an audiovisual Viral video. In 2006 they also worked on Snakes on a Plane remixing the film for its TV commercials.

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May 26, 2011

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane is a 2006 American action and horror film starring Samuel L. Jackson, which follows the events of hundreds of snakes being released on a passenger plane in an attempt to kill a trial witness.  During filming, Jackson did not come into contact with any live snakes, due to a contract clause preventing snakes from being within 25 feet (8 m) of the actor. The story is credited to David Dalessandro, a first-time Hollywood writer. He developed the concept in 1992 after reading a nature magazine article about tree snakes climbing onto planes in cargo during World War II.

Taking advantage of the Internet buzz for what had been a minor film in their 2006 line-up, New Line Cinema ordered five days of additional shooting. While re-shoots normally imply problems with a film, the producers opted to add new scenes to the film to change the PG-13 rating to R and bring it in line with growing fan expectations. The most notable addition was a revision of a catchphrase from the film that was parodied on the Internet by fans of the film, capitalizing on Jackson’s typically foul-mouthed and violent film persona: ‘Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!’

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