The Cuban barbecue, the $17 martinis, the sunshine and the kids on low rider bicycles. Miami wuz booty poppin' awesome. Big props to Alex, Jordan, Mo and the whole Scope crew for bringing us down and letting us blast videos on a 16x20 foot wall at the entrance to the Scope Art Fair (Miami, Dec. 5-9, 2007), that could also be viewed from the reverse side in the VIP lounge. Our projection tower and booth was an incredible cardboard construction by Boris Hoppek of heliumcowboy artspace - it was the sweetest collaboration we've ever been a part of.
Content-wise, we more or less VJed our way through the five days with classics from the Urban Nomad hard drive, a bunch of new material, and REAL ART given to us to play, including the world premier of DJ Spooky's New York is Now (via Irvine Contemporary) and the very oldschool Tooth and Nail: Film and Video 1970-74 by Dennis Oppenheim. The final day, we showed 20+ films by local Miami directors and were really impressed by their work.
We also sold a few independent films, projects we support like Wholphin, Pervert's Guide to Cinema and director-activist Franny Armstrong. In addition to generating a little financial support through sales, there is a symbolic importance to having cheap, independently produced DVDs in the generally much more high-flying economy of an art fair.
Now, here's the slide show:
Projection tower with our 20-foot screen behind it. View from the main entrance of the Scope Art Fair. Who the thumbs-up kid is, we have no fucking idea.
Front view of our installation. On screen: Marc D'Andre.
Sean (left) and Dave, the night before opening.
One of two 12,000-lumen projectors we used.
Dave gave a presentation, followed by one by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky. Martin Irvine (left) of Irvine Contemporary makes the introductions.
Sculpture by Boris Hoppek. Our projection booth is housed inside, as is the projector. It was like a fort.
Boris Hoppek, who made our projection tower. To do "legal" graffiti art in Barcelona, where he lives, he told me he collects cardboard boxes from the garbage, builds them into walls on front of walls, and then spray paints them.
View inside the projection booth. Hi Mo! Thanks for the visit!
Our indie DVD distro. We sold various indie DVDs, including Pervert's Guide to Cinema (featuring Slavoj Zizek, by Sophie Feinnes), two issues of the Wholphin DVD magazine (by Wholphin), McLibel and Drowned Out (by Franny Armstrong), The Naked Feminist (by Louisa Achille) and a compilation of Taiwanese short animations.
And of course there were the t-shirts, in summer colors. Our meager earnings from these went some small ways towards subsidizing the $17 martinis we were more or less obliged to drink - there is less irony in this remark than you think - to keep up with the high rolling South Beach crowd.
A satisfied customer (with one of Boris's paintings in the background).
