Brave New Views – HVW8 Los Angeles
Exhibiting Artists: Ross Schwartzman (DJ Ross One), Calmatic, Charlie Ahearn
Opening Night Music: Battlecat, Budgie and DJ Ross One
Please RSVP for opening this Friday, July 19th, 7 – 10pm here
HVW8 Gallery and NTS present a new series exploring the relationship between art and music. Each installment of the series will feature an art exhibition & opening event together with musical performances and artist interview podcasts. The inaugural exhibit opens July 19th at HVW8 Los Angeles.
DJ Ross One
Wall of Boom, 2019
32 vintage boomboxes from the early
1980s – early 1990s.
The exhibit features an installation of portable radios aka “The Wall of Boom” by Ross Schwartzman (DJ Ross One), exploring themes of music consumption and identity via these personal sound systems in late 80s & early 90s NYC. Consisting of a wall of over 30 vintage ‘boom boxes’, the installation will function as a singular sound system and pirate radio station with the ability for local listeners to tune in.
Ross Schwartzman aka DJ Ross One is a Cincinnati born DJ and collector of all things hip-hop. Armed with a MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, he promptly chose DJing as a full time career and now resides between Los Angeles and New York City. A self-proclaimed “rap nerd”, Ross has been collecting hip-hop ephemera and memorabilia since age 15. He is the author of “Rap Tees: A Collection of Hip-Hop T-Shirts 1980-1999”.
Charlie Ahearn
Doin’ Time In Times Square, 1991
39 minutes
Also featured is Charlie Ahearn’s Doin’ Time In Times Square, a home movie capturing the old capital of sleaze in all its pathetic glory. During the production of his movie Wild Style in 1980, Ahearn moved with his wife Jane Dickson to a corner loft with views of Eighth Ave and 43rd St. Awakened nightly by howling from the street he was ready with his video camera to shoot the chaos outside. Home movies of his son Joe’s birthday parties and the arrival of daughter Eve are mixed in with New Year’s eve mob scenes marking the passage of time until the building was demolished to make way for the new Disney-fied Times Square.
Charlie Ahearn has been involved in Hip Hop since the late 70’s, beginning with Super 8 kung fu movie The Deadly Art of Survival. Working with Fred Brathwaite he directed Wild Style which was released worldwide in 1983. Ahearn made two Hip Hop books Yes Yes Y’all, and Wild Style The Sampler. Ahearn produced a radio series with Hip Hop artists such as Rammellzee and Biz Markie artonair.com and completed Hip Hop short films such as The 5 Grand Masters, Dirt Style and Dancing Industry.
His feature documentary Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer was released through Oscilliscope. Ahearn recently did a one person art exhibition Scratch Ecstasy at PPOW gallery and participated with silkscreen paintings at Beyond The Streets LA 2018 and NY2019. Ahearn resides in New York.
Calmatic, Steven Traylor
Surveillance 1, 2018
Google Street View, Music Video
Additional contributions by Vince Staples, Ryan
Marie-Helfant and Electric Theatre
Los Angeles filmmaker Calmatic and artist Steven Traylor’s video and art installation highlights their direction of the highly conceptual music video for “FUN!” by Long Beach rapper Vince Staples. Shot from the perspective of an interactive Google Maps session, Calmatic says the video represents the way a lot of mainstream hip hop fans have protected access to Black lives and are able to fetishize the culture without having to truly experience it. The installation also juxtaposes the means and methods of consuming music, media and technology.
Calmatic (b. 1987) is a self taught filmmaker, historian and artist living and working in Los Angeles. He discovered his passion for telling stories at a young age. As an artist, he strives to humanize others’ unique experiences while stretching the limits of his viewers’ reality and highlighting the beauty in the mundane.
Drinks courtesy Saint Woods
The opening event will feature musical performances/DJ Sets from Battlecat, Budgie and DJ Ross One which will be recorded and streamed on NTS Radio platforms worldwide.
More info Here.