Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. “Melania”, Directed by Brad Downey
2. Said Dokins. “Runaway Writings” Solo Show
3. “Who’s the Daddy?” A film by Wong Ping

BSA Special Feature: “Melania”, Directed by Brad Downey

Street Artist/Interventionist Brad Downey widens his oeuvre with a documentary, and his exquisite critiques of hypocrisy – and his appreciation of life’s beautiful ironies are still fully intact.

Here in a grassy area between a dirt service road and the Sava River Mr. Maxi Z creates his ode to Melania, a girl born in the same hospital and year as he. Using his chainsaw to coax the immigrant/model/First Lady Melania from this tree whose roots go deep into her Slovenian homeland, the sculptor creates a painted tribute and a direct connection between art and life for all to see publicly. Hearing him describe his work is important, as is appreciating the struggle and sacrifice he speaks of. Hearing a traditional song and reading its lyrics, well crafted with nostalgia and heartache, buttresses the storytelling with context.

For us Mr. Downey’s brilliance is his examination of the assumed, his breakdown of folly, his ability to see. Here he shares his view with us, with warmth and satire. Among his targets, implied at least, may be the art world, the Street Art world, social anachronisms, international power structures, craven corruption. Among his tributes are the creative spirit, individual ingenuity, and the will to overcome. Long live Melania.

“Melania” 2019, Sevenica, Slovenia
A film by Brad Downey Featuring Maxi Z. Production Miha Erjavec Camera Aljaž Celarc Editing Eva Pavlič Seifert Song pevski zbor Bunkarji Sound Editing Simon Kavsek Translation Ana Bohte Assitance Jaka Erjavec Thanks to Son of Maxi Z, wife Jožica, Graveks d.o.o

Said Dokins. “Runaway Writings” Solo Show

Graffiti artist, contemporary artist, calligrapher and curator Said Dokins organizes images, objects and personal questions in his new exhibition at Centro Nacional de las Artes in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. 

With works on paper, on canvas, video, light, and photograph, the show speaks of conflict, community, the empire to the north, and his expansive practice with calligraphy. With each letter, each word, Said Dokins’ strokes free the steps of those who lived between these walls.

“Who’s the Daddy?” A film by Wong Ping

Hong Kong film director/animator/artist Wong Ping creates with the excesses and superficiality of non-stop consumer culture – humorously mixed and mingled with a young man’s insecurities, search for identity, and desire to get laid. His social, racial, cultural, political observations resonate beneath the eye candy. His sense of humor makes the formerly difficult easier to contemplate, the questions now tempered with the colorful absurdity of the world. Consider here, his ruminations on the length and curvature of the penis, among other things one might write in an online public diary.

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