Oddball Films
presents Outsider Artists and a
sneak peak at John Turner’s portrait of Korla Pandit, the visionary television
organist as part of its the Cinema Soiree Series, a monthly soiree featuring visiting authors,
filmmakers and curators presenting and sharing cinema insights. Join us
for screenings and eye-opening discussions on a wide-range of celluloid
subjects. Tonight we bring you John Turner, author, producer, director and
photographer of folk art and popular culture (see bio) and the director of the
upcoming documentary of legendary cult organist Korla Pandit. John will introduce selected shorts of American and
international outsider artist films such as: Messages From The Garden (1998) a fascinating profile of the world
of Howard Finster, famed artist, storyteller and visionary artist; Possum
Trot: The Life and Work of Calvin Black 1903-1972 (1977) SF filmmakers
Allie Light and Irving Saraf showcase the wildly eccentric art a folk artist
who lived in California's Mojave Desert and created more than 80 life-size
female dolls, each with its own personality, function, and costume performing
live in his “Bird Cage Theater”; Emery Blagdon and the Healing Machines by Thom Peterson, focuses on the extraordinary
kinetic and healing sculptures and paintings the self-taught artist Emery
Blagdon created between 1956 and 1986; The Mystery of the Electric
Pencil (Color, 2012), the extraordinary story of discovery
of the art of The Electric Pencil (John Edward Deeds) committed to life in a state
lunatic asylum in Nevada Missouri at the age of 17; From Windmills to Whirligigs: A Conversation with Vollis
Simpson (1997) a mechanic and visionary artist who created a cluster of
gigantic whirlygigs on his farm using scrap metal; Nek Chand: The Rock Gardens of Chandigarh
(Color, 1985), astonishing film about self-taught sculptor Nek Chand’s 25 acre
complex of several thousand sculptures combined with huge buildings and a
series of interlocking waterfalls-acknowledged as one of the modern wonders of
the world with over 5,000 visitors each day; Watts Flowers (date
unknown) Simon Kelly’s experimental short is an explosion of color and form
that is the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. The film features rare footage of
creator Simon Rodia at work; Dilmus Hall
features an interview of famed African American folk artist from Georgia.
And lastly John Turner will screen a trailer from Korla his upcoming doc about the sensational cult organ legend Korla Pandit. Plus! A Boy Creates (1971), a non-narrative film follows a young boy
through the abandoned ruins of San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach and tracks
him tending to his army of found art swamp statues in the long gone Emeryville
Mud Flats.
Date: Thursday, November 20th, 2014 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Featuring:
Messages From The Garden (Color, 1998) GS Milsap and Kyle
Cadwell’s fascinating profile of America’s most renowned and prolific visionary
artists: Howard Finster.
Howard describes
how he receives his visions, sings his
original songs and shows us his famed Garden Chapel.
A Baptist minister, the self-taught Finster began creating
his rough-hewn, often evangelical works in the 1950s. By the 1980s, his folk art
had drawn the attention of New York art galleries, while his backyard
collection of sculptures, mosaics and paintings called Paradise Gardens drew
visitors from around the world.
Finster’s cover for Georgia-based R.E.M.’s Reckoning (1984) depicted a
twisting snake upon which the album’s song titles were written. The group also
filmed the video for “Radio Free Europe” in Paradise Gardens in 1983. The art
for the Heads’ Little Creatures (1985)
included caricatures of the bandmembers — including David Byrne in his
underwear, carrying the world on his shoulders
Possum Trot (Color, 1977)
The Life and Work of Calvin Black 1903-1972
Calvin Black was a folk artist who lived in California's
Mojave Desert and created more than 80 life-size female dolls, each with its
own personality, function, and costume. He also built the "Bird Cage
Theater," where the dolls perform and sing in voices recorded by the
artist. The film works on two levels. One is the documentation of the artist's
legacy and commentary on women: grotesque female figures moving in the desert
wind and the theater with its frozen "actresses," protected by his
widow from a world she views as hostile. The other is the re-creation of the
artist's vision through the magic of film, as the camera enables the dolls to
move and sing and brings theater to life as the artist imagined it. Produced
and directed by award-winning SF filmmakers Allie Light and Irving Saraf.
For a preview:
Emery Blagdon and the Healing Machines by Thom Peterson,
focuses on the extraordinary kinetic and healing sculptures and paintings the
self-taught artist Emery Blagdon created between 1956 and 1986. In the late
1950s in an unheated shed near Stapleton, Nebraska Emery Blagdon began twisting
and old wire, metal and foil, threading hundreds of beads and shaping everyday
castoff materials with one purpose-to generate natural energy to heal. Spurred
by personal tragedy, his obsession to create a “Healing Machine” was life-long as he belived people could be cured
by his artful chandeliers, cascades of finely shaped wire and vibrant geometric
paintings. His work, now housed in the Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan is widely
considered art of great significance.
The Mystery of the Electric Pencil (Color, 2012)
Over five years ago, New York based artist and art dealer, Harris Diamant, discovered an extraordinary hand made album containing 283 drawings done on ledger sheets from State Lunatic Asylum No. 3, in Nevada MO. The unknown artist was given the name THE ELECTRIC PENCIL, based on the title of a single drawing.
The album and drawings look like artifacts from a distant time; arresting portraits of people with startling eyes wearing 19th century clothing, Civil War soldiers, antique cars, fantastic boats and trains, country landscapes with roaming animals, and other drawings that seem fanciful and bizarre. Who was this artist? Detective work reveals a fascinating story of the artist, James Edard Deeds Jr who spent over 50 years in the state lunatic asylum in Nevada, Missouri, creating 283 drawings in ink, pencil crayon and colored pencil. The drawings were done on both sides of 140 ledger pages, each bearing the name of the hospital. They were sewn into a hand made fabric and leather album, remarkable in their artistic originality.
Over five years ago, New York based artist and art dealer, Harris Diamant, discovered an extraordinary hand made album containing 283 drawings done on ledger sheets from State Lunatic Asylum No. 3, in Nevada MO. The unknown artist was given the name THE ELECTRIC PENCIL, based on the title of a single drawing.
The album and drawings look like artifacts from a distant time; arresting portraits of people with startling eyes wearing 19th century clothing, Civil War soldiers, antique cars, fantastic boats and trains, country landscapes with roaming animals, and other drawings that seem fanciful and bizarre. Who was this artist? Detective work reveals a fascinating story of the artist, James Edard Deeds Jr who spent over 50 years in the state lunatic asylum in Nevada, Missouri, creating 283 drawings in ink, pencil crayon and colored pencil. The drawings were done on both sides of 140 ledger pages, each bearing the name of the hospital. They were sewn into a hand made fabric and leather album, remarkable in their artistic originality.
Whirligigs: A Conversation
with Vollis Simpson (Color,
1997) This film is an engaging profile of a mechanic and visionary artist who created
a cluster of gigantic Whirligigs made of scrap metal and festooned with bicycle
reflectors on his farm in Lucama,
North Carolina.
Nek Chand: The Rock Gardens
of Chandigarh (Color,
1985), An astonishing film about self-taught North Indian sculptor Nek Chand’s
25 acre complex of several thousand sculptures combined with huge buildings and
a series of interlocking waterfalls-acknowledged as one of the modern wonders
of the world with over 5,000 visitors each day.
Chand built the sculptures
in secret in the undergrowth burning bicycle tires to illuminate he is work over
an 18 year period on public land before he was discovered and ultimately
supported by the Indian government. Directed by Ulli Beir and Paul Cox.
Watts Flowers (Color, date unknown) Simon Kelly’s
experimental short is an explosion of color and form that is the Watts Towers
in Los Angeles. Featuring rare footage of creator Simon Rodia at work.
Dilmus Hall (Color, date unknown)
Self taught
African American artist Dilmus Hall
Was born in
Georgia. In the art he made and in the manner in which he decorated his house,
Dilmus Hall revealed an inherent belief in the spiritual nature of objects.
While he was not aware of African history associated with such symbols as the
cross and diamond, he used them and believed in their protective powers. His
work and his home environment were living examples of African American
conjuring culture, with its mix of Christianity and African traditions of
empowering objects. Directed by Andy Naisse and Judith McWillie.
A
Boy Creates (Color, 1971)
This non-narrated film follows a young boy as he creates a
sculpture of found art, tracing his creative process from imaginative fantasy
through to the actual construction of a work of art. It also could be described
as a cautionary tale that follows a young boy as he wanders unsupervised around
an abandoned amusement park –Playland at the Beach in San Francisco, before
tending to his army of found art swamp statues once located in the Emeryville
Mudflats East of San Francisco.
For
more info about the famed (and sadly long gone) Emeryville Mudflats and its
artists: http://www.spacesarchives.org/explore/collection/environment/emeryville-mud-flats-aka-driftwood-sculptures--tidal-flats/
Korla (Color, 2014, trailer) John
Turner’s in-progress profile of the fascinating cult organist Korla Pandit
(1921-1998), a purported Indian-born organist who influenced and still captivates
musicians worldwide with his dreamy, atmospheric keyboards.
For a brief, mind-blowing history of Korla Pandit visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korla_Pandit
About John Turner
For the past
thirty years, John Turner has photographed folk environments throughout the
United States and around the world. He was Adjunct curator of Twentieth
Century American Folk Art at the museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco
and has curated exhibits for the Smithsonian, the Museum of American Folk Art,
and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He has written numerous articles
on folk art, travel and popular culture and is the author of Howard Finster, Man of Visions: The Life and
Art of a Self-Taught Artist, Leeteg of Tahiti: Paintings from the Villa
Velour and Create and Be Recognized, Photography On the Edge. John worked
at KGO TV as a news film/tape/digital editor and arts producer. He is
currently completing a documentary on the cult TV organist, Korla Pandit.