>>REVIEW
PURVIS OF OVERTOWN
Movies that Matter
DIRECTED BY David Raccuglia and Shaun Conrad
Outside: The Life and Art of Judith Scott (Pre-screening short)
DIRECTED BY Betsy Bayha
Monday, March 26
Engineered Air Theatre (Epcor Centre)
Through the outsider’s eyes our world comes into blinding focus, like a picture taken from far away. It’s what we don’t or won’t see on our daily commute, at the grocery store, while standing in front of a mirror.
Welcome to Overtown, the decrepit backdrop and loyal muse of outsider artist Purvis Young.
A once vibrant, up-and-coming black subdivision of Miami, Overtown is now what one resident calls, "the town that God won’t interview." Poor and troubled, it lies mouldering under the I-395, an overpass built during its heyday. Purvis of Overtown traces Young’s life, from early run-ins with the law, to his introduction to painting in prison, to his eventual discovery and resultant tumultuous relationship with the mainstream art world.
Resplendent with colour, bold strokes, and the hope and pain, joy and agony of survival amidst the ruin of civilization, Young’s paintings once hung by the hundreds on Overtown’s many abandoned buildings.
Now you will find them in collector’s safes, galleries – even the Smithsonian. Yet the energetic paintings look lifeless and strangely out of place here, like dead birds by the roadside.
Refusing to move from Overtown or adopt the trappings of success, Young continues to live in a ramshackle warehouse. Surrounded by haphazard piles of paintings, crusty paint cans and random debris, he paints in the gloomy light of bare bulbs and a dying television.
Stark and visually compelling, the film’s cinematography is perfectly complemented by the fabulously sinister blues of Otis Taylor. Young’s unforgettable voice grates candidly throughout the film, his story all but unheard by those who promote and profit from his art. "I paint what I see," he says.
Accompanying Purvis of Overtown is the short film, Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott, a documentary that challenges us to expand our concept of art and artists.
Assigned an IQ of 30, Judith Scott is deaf and does not speak. Institutionalized from the age of seven until her fraternal twin sister liberated her at 43, Judith found her means of expression in the fibre arts.
Her creations of yarn, wire, string, boxes and other found items form bizarre, enigmatic sculptures that have been exhibited internationally.
Both Purvis of Overtown and Outside: The Life and Art of Judith Scott are part of the Movies that Matter series and have a one-night screening at the Engineered Air Theatre (Epcor Centre) on Monday, March 26. |
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