May 26, 2011
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 (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 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 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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May 25, 2011
Alex Pardee (b. 1976) is a freelance artist and writer born in California. He runs the website EyeSuck Ink. Through his art he has admitted to overcoming depression and anxiety disorders along with emotional struggles.
He uses pens, ink, watercolors, dye, acrylics, oils, and latex. Pardee’s influences include 1980s horror movies, pop art, graffiti and gangster rap.
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May 25, 2011
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. The film is based on the novel of the same name, by Stephen King, about a writer with a wife and young son who accepts the job of an off-season caretaker at an isolated hotel.
The son, who possesses psychic abilities, is able to see things in the future and past, such as the ghosts in the hotel. Soon after moving in, and after a paralyzing winter storm that leaves the family snowed in, the father becomes influenced by the supernatural presence in the haunted hotel; he descends into madness and attempts to murder his wife and son.
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May 25, 2011
The Shining is a 1977 horror novel by Stephen King. The title was inspired by the John Lennon song ‘Instant Karma!,’ which contained the line ‘We all shine on…’ It was King’s third published novel, and the success of the book firmly established him as a preeminent author in the horror genre. A film based upon the book, directed by Stanley Kubrick, was released in 1980.
After writing ‘Carrie’ and ‘Salem’s Lot,’ both of which are set in small towns in King’s home state of Maine, King was looking for a change of pace for the next book. He opened an atlas of the US on the kitchen table and randomly pointed to a location, which turned out to be Boulder, Colorado. So in early 1974, King and his wife, Tabitha, and their two children, Naomi and Joe, moved across the country to Colorado.
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May 25, 2011
Randy Marsh is a character on the US TV show, ‘South Park.’ His name is derived from series co-creator Trey Parker’s father, and Parker describes Randy as ‘the biggest dingbat in the entire show.’ Randy is voiced by Parker.
The show established Randy and his wife Sharon as being a couple as young adults during the flower power era. Their marriage has not been without its frequent arguments, which are usually instigated when Sharon is annoyed, ashamed, or disgusted by Randy’s eccentricities. The two even once went through a brief divorce. After quickly entering a new relationship, Sharon realized how much she was still in love with Randy, and the two promptly reconciled. Randy and Sharon tend to showcase liberal viewpoints, having protested the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supported Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential race.
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May 25, 2011
Creed Bratton (b. 1943) is an American actor and musician best known for playing a fictional version of himself on the American adaptation of ‘The Office.’ Born William Charles Schneider, he grew up in a small California town near Yosemite National Park.
His grandparents, mother, and father were musicians, and he took a liking to music at a very early age. He became a professional musician during his high school and college years. He decided to try life as a traveling musician and made his way on a global excursion, during which he changed his name to Creed Bratton. He traveled through Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Appearing with his group the ‘Young Californians,’ he played guitar at a large folk festival in Israel.
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May 25, 2011
Richard Frank Oznowicz (b. 1944) , better known as Frank Oz is an American film director and puppeteer who is known for creating and performing the characters Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal in ‘The Muppet Show’ and for directing films, including the 1986 ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ remake and ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.’ He is also the operator and voice of Yoda in the Star Wars series, as well as Grover, Cookie Monster, Sam Eagle, and Bert on Sesame Street.
In addition to performing a variety of characters, Oz has been one of the primary collaborators responsible for the development of the Muppets over the last 30 years. His puppetry work spans from 1963 to the present, though he has retired from the Muppets. His Muppets were taken over by Eric Jacobson, though Oz still performs his characters on occasion. He also worked with the puppets on the movie Labyrinth, starring David Bowie.
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May 24, 2011
Bauhaus [bou-hous] is the common term for the Staatliches Bauhaus, an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933 in Germany and in the United States from 1937-1938. The most natural meaning for its name (related to the German verb for ‘build’) is Architecture House.
The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence. Nonetheless it was founded with the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together.
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May 23, 2011
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (1890 – 1941), better known as El Lissitzky was a Russian artist. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the former Soviet Union.
His work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements, and he experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th-century graphic design.
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