Robert Carrithers

The Downtown Luminaries

Published now "The Downtown Luminaries" 

ROBERT CARRITHERS CAPTURED, ALMOST BY DINT OF THAT QUIET STRENGTH, SOME OF THE MOST DYNAMIC PEOPLE OF THE CLUB 57 SCENE. HE WAS ONE OF THE FEW WHO HAD A PRESCIENT IDEA THAT THESE FACES WERE WORTH KEEPING TRACK OF: KEITH HARING, WENDY WILD, JOHN SEX, ANN MAGNUSON, KITTY BROPHY, PETER SMITH, KENNY SCHARF, CHARLOTTE SLIVKA. - ALEXA HUNTER

Photobook „THE DOWNTOWN LUMINARIES“ by Robert Carrithers. Published by PogoBooks Berlin.
May, 2018

Once upon a time in a place that does not exist anymore, I attempted to create a book. It was not just any old sort of book it was a magical one! At least it was for me. This place was 1980s New York City and I was in the right place at the right time. I lived on East 10th Street between 2nd and 1st Avenue. There were aggressive drug dealers on my block dealing their wares. It was dangerous to walk east of 1st Avenue because of the desperate junkies and criminals that inhabited the blocks of collapsed burnt out tenement buildings. I would go to sleep at night hearing gunshots and screams. It was a jungle out there. Show your fear and the animals will eat you, but I loved it! It was the most exciting time of my life. Why? Because in New York City at that time, anything was possible and you could be who you wanted to be. You could reinvent yourself and become performers with names like John Sex and Wendy Wild! Anyone from wherever in the world could come to New York City and do their dream, whatever it was, from being an artist to owning a shop. You did not have to work all of the time to pay your rent and you could put time and energy into your art and being who YOU wanted to be.

There was a creative laboratory called Club 57 on 57 St. Marks Place near where I had lived. Creative people who came to New York at the same time I did were drawn to this place like a magnet. Every night we created something different from a one-night art show to film screenings to music happenings to wild theme parties. Keith Haring had his first art show there, He painted on the walls for one night and the next day it was painted over for the next night’s happening. We did not compete with each other; we inspired and helped each other. I recognized the fact that there were very special personalities there. I started to organize to photograph them and interview 57 of them. I wanted to make a book about this called “57 Varieties”. I actually did complete the book. I put together a prototype of it with color Xerox photos and then typed out interviews. I had to sublet my 10th street flat for a year to go away to Berlin and I left it with a friend who I had trusted. I came back a year later and had found out he lost it. I was destroyed by this and just gave up on the idea, but now more than thirty years later in 2018 we now have the reality of this book, plus an exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art about Club 57 and it’s influence on culture.

Have you ever thought what it would be like for you now to have a conversation with your younger-self? Can you even imagine what that would be like? I was certainly a completely different person in 1980’s New York. This place does not exist anymore. I do not exist as I was then, but let us imagine that this character they called Bob (I prefer to be called Robert now) does exist. I will attempt to channel the spirit of Bob and he will take you on a spiritual journey through these photographs of the special personalities that inhabited this world from a long time ago. Let us go on a journey together through the New York ‘80s with Bob. We will also have some surprise guests from that time joining us for the journey – Robert Carrithers

This book also features Berlin artist Magdalena Wysocka completing a circle from N.Y. '80s to the present time.

Berlin, May 2018.
PogoBooks Verlag, Hauptstraße 13, 10317 Berlin www.pogobooks.de • [email protected]

CITY PRIMEVAL: NEW YORK BERLIN PRAGUE

CITY PRIMEVAL: NEW YORK BERLIN PRAGUE An Anthology curated by Robert Carrithers & Louis Armand (Prague: Litteraria Pragensia) CITY PRIMEVAL: NEW YORK BERLIN PRAGUE is a personal journey through time in each city told by writers, artists and photographers from each city. Robert Carrithers acts as a tour guide throughout the book with stories, photographs and art. The book was published in September 2017. We had book releases with performance, music, readings and slide show lectures by photographers to bring the book alive. The New York book release was November 10th at the Howl Happening, November 30th November 30th at Kino Central and eschloraque in Berlin and at Prague Design Week in Prague December 2nd. These special events brought the book alive in all three cities.

CITY PRIMEVAL is a constellation of personal documentaries of place & time by key contemporary writers, poets, musicians, designers, filmmakers, photographers, artists, editors, performers from within the New York, Berlin & Prague underground scenes from the late 1970s to the present; from New York Post-Punk & No Wave, to the fall of the Berlin Wall & Reunification, to the Velvet Revolution & the Prague Renaissance; including contributions by Bruno Adams, Penny Arcade, Louis Armand, Dale Ashmon, J.Jackie Baier, Markéta Baňková, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer, Lina Bertucci, Gaby Bíla-Günther Mykel Board, Victor Bockris, Christoph Brandl, Gary Ray Bugarcic, Robert Carrithers, David Černý, Roman Černý, Michal Cihlář, Antonio Cossa, William Coupon, Max Dax, Christoph Dreher, Sara Driver, Glen Emery, Vincent Farnsworth, Nat Finkelstein, Roxanne Fontana, Thor Garcia, Susanne Glück, Carola Goellner, Anthony Haden Guest, Carl Haber, Jere Harshman, Henry Hills, Nhoah Hoena, Michael Holman, John Hood, Chris Hughes, Jolana Izbická, Timo Jacobs, Bethany Eden Jacobson, Tobiáš Jirous, Bettina Köster, Julius Klein, Hubert Ketzschmar, Jaromír Lelek, Lydia Lunch, Rinat Magsumov, Peter Milne, Steve Morell, Mona Mur, Julia Murakami, Shalom Neuman, Paul Pacey, Puma Perl, Rudolf Piper, Rudi Protrudi, Mark Reeder, Marcia Resnik, Ingrid Rudefors, Ilse Ruppert, Šimon Šafránek, Honza Sakař, Oliver Schütz, Marcia Schofield, Tom Scully, Semra Sevin, Phil Shoenfelt, Peter Smith, Azalea So Sweet, Mark Steiner, Kenton Turk, Andre Werner, Ian Wright, Nick Zedd, Dave Zijlstra, Richard & Winter Zoli, Miron Zownir.

Tom Scully

I have known Tom Scully for quite some time. I remember Tom back in the daze/days of New York in the '80s. I remember him having wild roof top parties on top of his building on Chrystie Street in Chinatown with films being shown, bands playing and Tom DJing all with the background of the glittering Manhattan skyline. Things always seemed about to go out of control, but somehow when the sun started to rise, it calmed down and everyone was pleased that the roof did not collapse. I recall that there were several casualties at those parties. One person fell off the roof and another walked into the elevator on the 12th floor. The elevator was not there and he fell all 12 flights down the elevator shaft. Surprisingly, both people survived. Tom organized the Psychedelic Weekend Parties at The Cavern. I had my own small bar in the basement. Tom gave me the name of The Reverend (Or The Rev) and named my small bar The Confessional Booth. I was given a punch bowel with a glowing blue liquid in it. I was instructed to give a glass to anyone who gives me a bell. This special brew was spiked with an unknown quantity of acid/LSD. The night got stranger and stranger with bands like The Fuzztones and Certain General playing as crazed painted day-glo blue go-go girls danced out of control. People did not confess at my confessional booth that night because most of them could not speak or were too busy bouncing off the walls and dancing. At the end of the last night, the blue go-go girls kidnapped Tom. He woke up the next morning to find himself painted all blue and had to find his way home. He could not get the blue off his skin for a week. 

Tom was a premier revolutionary DJ throughout the clubs in New York and he eventually started to DJ in Europe. Tom in his day, was a true mover and shaker in New York. In my opinion, he has not been given proper credit for what he accomplished during his time in New York. In 1978, he and Susan Hannaford created and produced the New Wave Vaudeville show at Irving Plaza. Ann Magnuson was the director of the show. This one of a kind vaudeville show was a cultural changing point in New York. It eventually gave birth to the new creative clubs that mixed performance with art, film, music, theme parties and went onto inspire so many creative souls of that time. It was Klaus Nomi's premier performance at the New Wave Vaudeville Show, that amazed people with his other world visuals and sound. From this point, Tom, Susan and Ann went onto to create the infamous Club 57 in the basement of a Polish church at 57 ST. Marks Place in the East Village. Although, let me make it clear, Stanley Strychacki was the original Club 57 founder and also sponsor the sponsor from beginning to the end.It mutated into a warped creative playground for wacked-out kindred artistic spirited funsters. Tom and Susan created the weekly Monster Movie Club and Ann Magnuson was the manager of the club. Ann was able to experiment and develop her ideas and performances. Susan was at the entrance accepting the donations for entrance, looking very much like Morticia Addams from another planet. Tom took his role very serious as the Monster Movie Club curator. He would organize all screenings and was the projectionist. Tom would organize low budget B monster/horror films to be shown to an eager East Village audience. He would organize the filmmakers to come and speak about their films. If I am not mistaken, he even got Russ Meyers to appear, speak and answer questions. Tom was the Monster Movie Club professor whereas Susan encouraged people to talk back to the films, laugh, have fun and create scenes. This upset the professor side of Tom, but after a few drinks he even got into the fun of it. Tom inspired and encouraged lots of people on the scene at that time to be true to who they are and not be afraid to perform and look silly. He always said, "If you can't be silly and idiotic sometimes, what is the sense of it all?" 

Tom eventually moved out of New York with his french wife Sybille. They lived in Paris and then Montpellier. They created two beautiful and talented daughters named Camille and Charlotte. Tom and Sybille live with Camille in Berlin. Charlotte lives in Paris and is a make-up artist for films and photo sessions. She is also pursuing her interest in film and photography. Sybille is a photographer. Camille is presently completing her studies in Berlin and is active in photography with the help of her mother. Tom is involved in numerous art projects and plays in a fun punk band called (what else?) Monster Movie Club! The photo above is Tom after a Monster Movie Club performance in Berlin and the photo below is Tom with his daughters Camille and Charlotte.

 

New York Portraits 2010: M. Henry Jones, The Mad Art Scientist of the East Village

M. Henry Jones has been the resident mad art scientist of the East Village in New York City for over three decades now. He goes into his laboratory called SnakeMonkey Studios and creates and gives new life to his creations with the help of his fellow snake monkey mad art scientists. He scientifically and artistically creates amazing 3D image artwork, animation, innovative TV commercials, short films, web animation and a host of experimental 3D work. Henry lives out the dreams of a twelve year old. He is the founder and director of SnakeMonkey Studios located in the East Village of New York City. Henry has been working with 3D since the 1970s way before it became popular. They also sell limited edition art work and handmade T-shirts out of the studio. They do sculpture with 3D photography that he calls fly eye photography. It is a combination studio and friendly store-front shop on Avenue A, NYC. 

Henry grew up in a little town north of Buffalo New York. He got involved in making experimental puppet films and from that point on he was making animation in an extremely obsessive way. Henry has exhibited at international museums and many galleries. He loves film to an extreme extreme. Henry thinks of film as a moving painting. He likes to capture moments and freeze them like in a dream. Henry was heavily influenced by underground filmmaker Harry Smith who later became his mentor. Henry made films with bands starting all the way back in 1979. He worked with the New York band The Fleshtones and made the ground-breaking film called Soul City. This inspired many bands to start making music videos way before the existence of MTV. Henry and his team have been creating various freak characters that they put in animated films, photos and t-shirts. Sometimes it is a family affair where Henry's son gets involved with creating some of these freak characters and Henry's wife Rachel Amodeo who also contributes fairy creatures with her art work. Henry's does unique work with what is called a Stroboscopic Zolo. He creates or uses figures that are animated with strobe lights firing on them. The strobe freezes the moments. He made a series of 3D manifestations of artist Kyle Jenkin's Killer Baby painting and continues this work with his or other artists creations.  

I went into his shop last October to look around. Henry was working on one of his experiments, but stopped when he saw me. He looked at me with a strange look and I found myself in some kind of time warp. I left his studio two days after. I discovered that I had bought a 3D Killer Baby, a 3D Woman Alien and lots of T-shirts. Henry talks to one and all who visit his shop studio... except if he is involved in one of his mad art scientist experiments, but be careful when he has that mad gleam in his eyes, you might become one of his experiments. Visit his shop for the experience in New York City at 202 Avenue A. Please click on the highlighted words above for further information.

New York Portraits 2010: Nick Zedd and Monica Casanova

This photo was taken when Nick, Monica and I were exhausted. Nick and Monica were both very tired from the endless stress of living in Brooklyn in a flat dealing with a typical mad crazy out of his head greedy New York landlord who wants to drive his tenants to despair.... or something like that. On top of that Monica is pregnant and Nick was ill. I was exhausted from trying to do too much in New York. It was my last night in New York and I had a small going away party. Nick and Monica were surprisingly nice enough to come to it and this was the last chance to take a photo of the both of them, that I desperately wanted to do. We ended up at the Yaffa Cafe with red lights looking like a Mexican brothel. I do like the Mexican bullfighter painting in the background. This is a red lit enhanced photo with a kind of hyper reality. I hope they like it. I mean this is for the lord of East Village underground cinema who wrote the Cinema of Transgression Manifesto. At the end of this posting, it is printed in it's entirety.I first met Nick ages ago in the East village while he was filming one of his East Village shocker films, but I remet Nick last October again. He is also an artist. An excellent artist in fact and I had the pleasure of being in the Club 57 Art show with him. That is where I met his dazzling partner Monica. Monica is originally from Mexico. Nick and Monica will be escaping the madness of Brooklyn to Mexico. Somehow this is very logical and I wish them both the best!  

I also want to point out that Nick is a film pioneer. Lots of famous filmmakers have used lots of ideas from Nick films. Have you ever wondered what the hell Bruce Willis was talking about in Terantino's film "Pulp Fiction" when he said, "Zedd is dead?"

Nick Zedd has been a leading figure of the 80s Lower East Side Cinema of Transgression. He always felt if the viewer was not shocked after seeing one of his films he was not doing his job. At the same time his films were intense, but beautiful at the same time as being mind altering. What some would call bad taste at that time, nowadays you see in too many films. He worked with amazing underground actors such as Lydia Lunch, Kembra Pfahler, Rockets Redglare, Brenda Bergman, Taylor Mead and so many more. Please click on the highlights above for more detail about his films such as They Eat Scum, Police State, War in Menstrual Envy, Thrust in Me, The Wild World of Lydia Lunch and his intense TV series Electra Elf with Rev. Jen. I will let Nick Speak for himself wth the pasting below of his Manifesto.

Monica Casanova is an underground visual artist and fashion designer living and working in Mexico City and New York. For more than twenty years,she has been a leading figure in the various underground movements in Mexico City. She has worked with rock bands, alternative theater with figures such as Juan Jose Gurrola. She has also performed with Katia Tirado for Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Mexico City). Monica has done several performances as a lady wrestler, transforming it in a new form of art in Arena Mexico. Monica has helped it gain recognition in the multimedia art events, which has led to inspiration for Mexican artists like Laureana Toledo, Francis Alys and Dj Chrysler, who shot Monica as a icon figure.

In New York she has collaborated with Patricia Field making the installations of her famous window displays. The art in Bergdorf Goodman's window displays were  Monica's space of creativity for a year, as well.  She was part of a show in Deitch Project with Kembra Phfaler doing  limited edition pieces of 'hoodies' and 't-shirts' that were sold to several art collectors from New York. Monica has done performances in Susan Bartsch's events with multiple fashion looks that she used to reinvent herself over and over. She has been photographed as part of the fashion icons gang of New York for Paper Magazine. She has been featured as an iconoclast figure in publications such as V Magazine, Paper Magazine, Celeste, Rude Magazine, Black Book, Nylon Japan and Nylon Mexico for which she just received a full interview for their first issue. She also has published her photos in numerous publications. Her last exhibition was held in the Museum of Estonia showcasing Mexican Wrestlers. Monica considers her daughter, Amanita,  her best piece of art.  Amanita is part of the theatrical death rock band The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.

Cinema of Transgression Manifesto 

by Nick Zedd

We who have violated the laws, commands and duties of the avant-garde; i.e. to bore, tranquilize and obfuscate through a fluke process dictated by practical convenience stand guilty as charged. We openly renounce and reject the entrenched academic snobbery which erected a monument to laziness known as structuralism and proceeded to lock out those filmmakers who possesed the vision to see through this charade. 

We refuse to take their easy approach to cinematic creativity; an approach which ruined the underground of the sixties when the scourge of the film school took over. Legitimising every mindless manifestation of sloppy movie making undertaken by a generation of misled film students, the dreary media arts centres and geriatric cinema critics have totally ignored the exhilarating accomplishments of those in our rank - such underground invisibles as Zedd, Kern, Turner, Klemann, DeLanda, Eros and Mare, and DirectArt Ltd, a new generation of filmmakers daring to rip out of the stifling straight jackets of film theory in a direct attack on every value system known to man. 

We propose that all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again. We propose that a sense of humour is an essential element discarded by the doddering academics and further, that any film which doesn't shock isn't worth looking at. All values must be challenged. Nothing is sacred. Everything must be questioned and reassessed in order to free our minds from the faith of tradition.Intellectual growth demands that risks be taken and changes occur in political, sexual and aesthetic alignments no matter who disapproves. We propose to go beyond all limits set or prescribed by taste, morality or any other traditional value system shackling the minds of men. We pass beyond and go over boundaries of millimeters, screens and projectors to a state of expanded cinema. 

We violate the command and law that we bore audiences to death in rituals of circumlocution and propose to break all the taboos of our age by sinning as much as possible. There will be blood, shame, pain and ecstasy, the likes of which no one has yet imagined. None shall emerge unscathed. Since there is no afterlife, the only hell is the hell of praying, obeying laws, and debasing yourself before authority figures, the only heaven is the heaven of sin, being rebellious, having fun, fucking, learning new things and breaking as many rules as you can. This act of courage is known as transgression. We propose transformation through transgression - to convert, transfigure and transmute into a higher plane of existence in order to approach freedom in a world full of unknowing slaves.

New York Portraits 2010: Richard Lowenstein

I was in New York last October to be in and to help curate the Club 57 Art Show and to film the Mudd Club reunion. I did as much as I could in New York with the time that I had. I found out, much to my surprise, two days before leaving, that Richard Lowenstein was in New York. Last year Richard sent me on an Odyssey through Prague, Vienna and Berlin filming interviews for his documentary film about Rowland S. Howard. I battled with an Icelandic volcano to interview Lydia Lunch from Prague to Vienna. I struggled with technical difficulties and the decadent debauchery demons of Berlin (Chris Hughes being one of them) to interview Oliver Schutz, Christoph Dreher, Mark Reeder, Mick Harvey, Thomas Wydler, John Murphy and Steve Morell. I completed the interviews in Prague with Phil Shoenfelt, Pavel Cingl, La Petite Sonja and Hank Manchini. I enjoyed the journey very much. I was able to discover some really fascinating special people and got to know them. Some of them are friends, so it was nice to work with them and I also made new friends as a result. All in all it was work, but a nice experience. It was a pleasure to work with Richard and for me it was and is most important to help and contribute in some way in the memory and total respect of the unique talent and personality of Rowland S. Howard. 

It was totally unexpected and amazing to meet Richard in New York. It was my last night in New York. I had a small going away party at the Horse Shoe Bar on Avenue B and 7th Street in the East Village. Those last few days in New York were hectic and I was in contact with Richard by email and let him know about the going away party. I did not expect him to turn up that night because of his busy schedule in New York, but sure enough he was there. It was nice to finally meet him. We had never met before. We were only in contact by email and phone. This was our first face to face meeting. I was very exhausted from all the running around, but got a second wind that night. It felt like some circle had been completed. He introduced me to some of his friends and I introduced him to fellow filmmaker Nick Zedd. Australian cinema visionary meets East Village cinema of transgression. An interesting combination to watch. That was my memory of that night anyway and I hope to meet Richard sometime soon when I have had some sleep. 

What to write about Richard? For me he is a filmmaker who is a true visionary and he was way way ahead of his time. (ten years to be exact) He made his film "Dogs in Space" in 1986. It has a strong chopping chaos that captured the turbulent world of musician's lives in Melbourne. Richard made this film ten years before the film "Trainspotting" that very much works with the same sort of themes and styles. He made ground-making films prior to that with "Evictions" and "Strikebound" and won numerous awards. In between and after all this Richard made a lot of music videos and worked closely with the bands INXS and U2. Richard won five MTV Video Music Awards in 1988 for his work on INXS "Need You Tonite/Meditate" music videos. He went onto make what I consider another revolutionary film "He Died with a Felafel in His Hands" from the John Birmingham novel. It was incredible that Richard was able to make a film out of a series of anecdotes about living in share houses in Brisbane and other cities in Australia. It was considered unfilmable. The film with it's wonderful cinematography (Andrew de Groot), captures the psychology of each Australian city and the youth of each city with their day to day existence. He has co-produced the satirical australian music TV series John Safran's Music Jamboree and John Safron Vs God. Richard is a partner in the Melbourne based production Company Ghost Pictures and is also a partner in the feature film production company Fandango Australia Pty Ltd with Italian producer Domenico Procacci. There is so much more to write about Richard. I am just touching the surface here. Please click on the highlighted name/words above to find out further information. I am pleased to write that Ghost Pictures is producing the film "Rowland S. Howard: Autoluminescent" and that I am happy to be involved in it. If anyone can make a film about Rowland S. Howard, certainly Richard, the filmmaker wizard of Oz is the only one and the right one who can make that magic happen.

New York Portraits 2010: Lucy

This is Lucy! Lucy has a bar in the East Village on Avenue A between St. Marks Place and 9th Street.... 135 Avenue A to be exact! A real dive bar!!! The real thing! It is just a long bar, a room with tables, a pool table and a juke box. Oh, yes, the stinky toilets too! There used be quite a few Polish dive bars in the East Village and this is the survivor. So many things have changed in New York, especially the East Village! I remember going into Lucy's bar in the 80's in New York. Cheap drinks and friendly Lucy greeting you as you came into the door. If you had several drinks, she would always give you one free. I had many a late night there. It was always a good place to go for a talk and a drink. If we had a problem, it was the place to go and talk, usually it always lasted longer than what we wanted and it was 4 am before we knew it. Lucy has been an East Village institution as long as I could remember. I was happy to see her behind the bar, full of energy and talking to the customers as usual. Lots of things always change in New York, but then again, there are some things that remain. Lucy must be in her 80's. I hope she keeps going strong. Here she is, as usual every night in New York, talking to a familiar bar customer. Good ol' Lucy!