• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Avenida Houston
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    so divine

    "I'm hardly Ansel Adams": The peculiar film art of John Waters fills in for hismovie work

    Tyler Rudick
    Mar 17, 2012 | 6:01 pm
    • John Waters
      Photo by Tyler Rudick
    • John Waters, Pet, 2009, C-print, Edition 4/5
    • John Waters, La Mer, 2009, Styrofoam, urethane, plaster and latex, Edition 5/5,signed and titled in ink: "La Mer" John Waters
    • John Waters, Neurotic, 2009, four C-prints, Edition 3/5
    • John Waters, Plus, 1996, two C-prints, Edition 4/5
    • John Waters, Bad Directors Chair, 2006, canvas, wood, steel and paint withleather bound script, Edition 1/5 signed, titled and numbered in ink (underfootrest): "Bad Director’s Chair 1/5, J. Waters"
    • John Waters, Visit Marfa, 2003, offset print, Edition 40/100

    Movie fans and art fans alike poured into the McClain Gallery for the opening of Neurotic, the first exhibition in Texas dedicated to the artwork of cult film legend John Waters.

    As the beloved filmmaker made his rounds through the show (which is part of the Fotofest Biennial), politely signing autographs and posing for pictures Thursday night, crowds made their way around Waters' 2009 large installation piece La Mer — a three-foot-tall styrofoam reproduction of the famous skin cream that winks to Warhol's Brillo boxes as much as it nods to the 20th-century cultural kitsch that gave rise to films like Pink Flamingos and Hairspray.

    Aside from Bad Director's Chair (on the back of the canvas chair, "hack" has been stenciled where one might expect the word "director") and an oversized bath rack complete with towel, the bulk of the show centers around Waters' photographic cut-ups and collages from the past two decades.

     

    "I used to come here a lot to promote my movies, but I haven't been in Houston for a long time," Waters said. "It's great to be back with an  art show."

    "I’m hardly Ansel Adams," Waters told CultureMap contributor Joe Leydon in a recent interview. "I take pictures of other people’s movies and re-edit them in storyboard format to form a movie that might be completely different than what any of the people who made the original movies had in mind."

     

      In 2009's Product Placement, common grocery store items have made their way into some of the most memorable moments of film history. Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr kiss on the beach in the famous scene in From Here to Eternity as a bottle of Coke washes ashore in the waves. Stills from The Ten Commandments and Aguirre, the Wrath of God feature Tilex and Hershey's Kisses

     

    Waters said recently that he worries viewers don't retain moving pictures as well as they remember film stills they've seen in books again and again. With his artworks, he can make a counter attack.

     

    He noted that, for him, the process of making art is as rooted in acts of writing and editing as his films . . . he just hunts down the images to tell his stories rather than employing actors and building props.

    "I think up each of these pieces and then I have to go find the images that make a new narrative which many times is the opposite of or has nothing to do with what the director really began with," he said.

    With his art, Waters seems to have allowed himself to veer into more thought-provoking, conceptual terrain than one might typically find in his film work.

     

    The haunting 9/11 evokes a strong emotional response, particularly among light-hearted pieces l ike Melissa, which shows a screen bearing the words "starring Melissa Rivers" over a cloud.

    "These were actually two movies shown on the planes involved in the World Trade Center attacks," McClain assistant director Erin Siudzinski said of a 9/11 piece that juxtaposes two film title screens — one for A Knight's Tale and another for Dr. Doolittle 2.

    Though still infused with that cheeky John Waters-y humor, the haunting 9/11 evokes a surprisingly strong emotional response, particularly among relatively light-hearted pieces like Melissa, which shows a grainy screen shot bearing the words "starring Melissa Rivers" over a cloud.

    "I used to come here a lot to promote my movies, but I haven't been in Houston for a long time," Waters said. "It's great to be back with an art show and the trip's been wonderful so far."

    He said he spend much of Wednesday visiting the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Joel Shapiro installation at Rice and Richard Serra's exhibit at the Menil.CultureMap caught Waters' ear for a moment at Thursday's busy event to hear about his week in Houston, which also included a one-man performance at DiverseWorks on Wednesday.

    After leaving town this weekend, Waters said he would return to a laundry list of creative activity.

    "I have another art show coming up and I'm writing another book. Then there's the spoken word thing as well," he laughed. "Just a million things these days."

    unspecifiedseries568664026
    series/fotofest-2012
    news/entertainment

    take the show on the road

    FotoFest pairs with Singapore Airlines to keep the Russian art party going

    Tyler Rudick
    May 27, 2012 | 10:01 am
    • St. Basil's Cathedral
      Been There Done That
    • One of the main sponsors of Fotofest's 2012 Biennial, the Garage Center hasushered in a thriving new era of contemporary art in Moscow.
      Photo by Roman Suslov

    While FotoFest's Biennial of Russian photography may be behind us, the organization's partnership with Singapore Airlines has left Houstonians with a pair of affordable trip options to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

    "The huge number of art museums and palaces in both cities was one of the main reasons we first started our Russia packages 15 years ago," said Edwin Choy of GloboTours, the company that arranges and customizes itineraries for the tours.

     

    Explore Moscow's current art scene at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture or Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, both of which provided support for Fotofest. 

    Starting at $2149, the Moscow itinerary offers a six-day, four-night stay at the recently-built Lotte Hotel at the edge of the historic Arbat District, a tangle of old city streets that became home to countless artists and musicians in the 1960s and '70s.

    Pre-arranged morning tours of landmarks like the Kremlin and the St. Basil's Cathedral free up afternoons to explore Moscow's current art scene at newer institutions such as the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, a non-profit art space that served as one of the main sponsors of FotoFest 2012 Biennial.

    Also not to miss is the Lumiere Brothers Photogallery with its newly-founded Center for Photography, which served as another major supporter for this year's Biennial. One of Russia's first galleries dedicated to Russian fine art photography, Lumiere opened in 2001 to focus on Soviet photographers and photojournalists. A museum, lecture hall and public library were added in 2010.

    A second package option that starts at $3399 adds St. Petersburg into the mix with an eight-day, six-night tour covering both cities.

    While Moscow represents a more avant-garde spectrum of Russian art, St. Petersburg has been the country's artistic heartbeat since Peter the Great founded the city in 1703 to compete with Europe's greatest cultural centers. While the Hermitage Museum is a must, be sure to see the legendary Pushkinskaya-10 — a hive of contemporary art and music located inside an abandoned Soviet apartment block — as well.

    unspecifiedseries568664026
    series/fotofest-2012
    news/entertainment
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.
    Loading...