Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

Second film under our belt from the NZ film festival & what a superb one it was! Jean-Michel Basquiat - Radiant Child is an amazing documentary by Tamra Davis (director & friend of JMB), this film documents the meteoric rise & fall of the young street artist who became a phenomenon & millionaire in less than 2 years. He achieves critical & commercial success, though he is constantly confronted by racism from his peers. Absolutely loved this film......... AMAZING, AMAZING, AAAAAAMMMMMMAAAAAZZZZZIIIIINNNNNNGGGG!

CROWN RATING: 5/5 crowns

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (Animated Trailer)

"exit through the gift shop" - banksy film

NZ Film Festival is on in Auckland at the moment and we have checked out our first film!

"Exit through the gift shop" a film by UK artist Banksy. This film is ultimately suppose to be about street art & Banksy (which it is) but a man who is heavily featured in this film is a crazy video recording obsessed little man by the name of Thierry Guetta who captures & documents street artists in action.

We got the impression that this film was another one of Banksy's outrageous art projects but it is disguised in a very clever way. Banksy is great at creating controversy which makes his work so recognizable & we love his work because it seems so reaction based.

It is truely incredible how Banksy has managed to keep his identity hidden for so long & he stays true to that by appearing all blacked out so that only a silhouette of himself is shown. This film is soooo inspiring on one of the highest levels, check it out if you get a chance!

CROWN RATING: 4/5 crowns

"it is a joyous addition to the potential catalogue raisonné of the artist who turned Warhol inside out by proving that anonymity is cooler and more difficult to sustain than fame.” — Amy Taubin, Film Comment

ash - "hi from LONDON!"

DAY TWO

Today we played the ultimate tourists. We woke up at 4:30am London time, some would putit down to jetlag others would say a little over eager perhaps? At 8 we headed off to catch "the big bus" tour bus, which lets you hop on and off at all the major attractions! This was awesome and we managed to fit in "Buckingham Palace", "Big Ben", "Westminster Abbey", "Houses of Parliament", a boat ride on the "Thames" and my personal favourite the TATE Modern Museum of Art!

Both Big Ben and the houses of parliament, which are a joint,  and Westminster abbey were mind-blowing! The details on the buildings of the houses of parliament are so intricate its incredible to think such an amazing place just sits in the middle of London, free on show for everyone to see. 

Westminster Abbey is beautiful! It houses most of the tombs of past kings and queens of England including Elizabeth the first, as well as the tomb of the Isaac Newton! The man who discovered gravity, what a guy! This took us a good hour an half, using a personal guided tour system which tells your where go and what your looking at through a contraption that looks like a phone and all you have to do is press a button - it was impressive. Following Westminster Abbey we headed to the TATE! We caught the bus over into the most central part of London - London city, and walked across this amazing bridge over to the TATE. We didnt have much time left and most definitely not enough to do it justice, but enough to see some of my favourite artists including the ones I have studied such as Picasso, Braque, Manet, Jackson Pollock, Rothko and Andy Warhol! This was such a cool feeling to be able to see the art I had studied in books and on the internet in real life!!

My favourites were most definitely Pollock, Rothko and Warhol! 



Plus I even arranged to introduce LBC to the greats and managed to get it right up on the walls in the same arena as THE ANDY WARHOL (picture included)


By this time we were ready to pack it in and hopped on the boat sailing up the Thames and heading back home which was lovely and a nice way to end the day. On the way home we walked through Hyde Park which was alive with energy and people flocking to listen outside the gates to Kings of Leon who are playing live in Hyde Park tonight! How great!! It was amazing, people picnicking on the grass outside the fortress - it was a sight to behold indeed!