Whartscape Pt. 4: Drop It Like Its Haute

Take a break from Whartscape's geekbeat/zapshock punk and synth sin to enjoy arts and crafts time with the many, many Bmore natives who keep this city Wired. (Note: This week we talk about Wham City but that's just Dolly Parton's nipple as far as the local art/music scene goes, hon.) Jimmy Joe Roche, not really pictured above, creates more trouble than Cheney in Carhartts so we could only include a fraction of his "conversation starters" below - there's much more at Wham City. Here's a sample of some of the multimedia insania that should be on display this weekend.

If we had art like this in third grade, there wouldn't have been a paint chip left on the radiator:


Quoth Roche: "A mandala projected from the third eye of suburban back yards, cracked driveways, and dusty VCR's. The wizards of Baltimore and Wham City deal powerful magic, we'll need it soon, the dawn of this post-postmodern age is upon us." Zactly.






















At the PLASTIC Artscape Satellite Exhibition, which examines our obession with replicas of orginal commodities, we ran into some fantastic work from Wham clan members Dina Kelberman (sister of Joshua from Santa Dads) and Ben Furgal. When not working on art exhibits, Kelberman runs Important Comics and is "...working on lots of stuff for Whartscape right now (at this very moment!) including schedules, posters, t-shirts, pins, a giant banner and other stuff, making an animated music video for Santa Dads, some costume stuff in a show called Antagonisms, Hacks and Hoaxes at the Maryland Art Place in August, a serious comic book, something more substantial than my other comics, and something i can reproduce in large quantities without wanting to kill myself. And Connor Kizer and I have a children's book project we've been talking about for years that I really want to make happen. Plus I'm always updating my own and Wham City's website, drawing flyers, and getting roped into other projects. Always too many things. I desperately want to stop needing food and sleep." Note she didn't say she was tired folks - just wishes she didn't need to sleep (Kelly Ripa's Tressant Suprême shampoo).

Furgal did Dan Deacon's cover art for Spiderman of the Rings. Here's a recent review of another recent exhibit he did with Jimmy Joe Roche.
Ben Furgal Super Site
Dina Kelberman Super Site
Jimmy Joe Roche Super Site



More from double J, the face of complete insanity:

And of course we're not art critics - we just like to dance around in the hall with our bookbags. So tell us what you think.

Back to music, Dirty Projectors play this Saturday night at Floristree in support of their new album Rise Above before heading out to tour in Europe and support Butter Team fave Beirut. Girzzly Bear's Chris Taylor twiddled the function buttons to support the DP's patchouli-flavored baklava of layered vocal harmonies.

Dirty Projectors - No More (from Rise Above)

And:
The Jam - Art School
Cursive - Art is Hard
Talking Heads - Artists Only