| Open
galleries & reception, 6:30–7:30 pm, Sanchez Art Center
Documentary film screening, 7:30–9:30 pm, Mildred Owen Concert Hall
followed by a talk with Jerry Barrish and
filmmakers William Farley and Janis Plotkin
Advance
Tickets: $15 / At Door: $20, if available
Sometimes
an individual is compelled, in the face of daunting odds, to find
his identity by making art and becoming an artist...
This documentary
tells the remarkable story of a plucky bail bondsmen best known
for bailing out members of the 1960s Bay Area counterculture ("DON'T
PERISH IN JAIL, CALL BARRISH FOR BAIL"). As a social justice
crusader, independent filmmaker, and man who at age 50 discovered
a new artistic path as a sculptor, Barrish began using discarded
plastic as his new medium. This new path presented Barrish with
the struggle to create museum-quality fine art out of trash.
Jerry Barrish was
the product of an environment that little appreciated the finer
arts, much less the wildness of modern art. His hardworking, San
Francisco Jewish relatives were boxing enthusiasts and vaguely connected
to the mob. Those connections got him started in the bail bond business.
Then he broke the mold, becoming the bailout guy for radical "sixties
protesters." Inspired by the times, he went further afield,
delving into art collecting and then launching himself as a filmmaker
and sculptor.
Creative by necessity,
Barrish began collecting shoreline detritus, especially the discarded
plastic, and assembling it into whimsical, evocative, poignant human
and animal figures. Barrish reassembles his life as a sculptor,
but hits another snag: the art world approves of the imagination,
but scorns the material. Barrish's beloved plastic won't do for
the world of galleries and collectors. Yet by the end of Plastic
Man, the artist finds his vindication, and the immeasurable pleasure
of wide visibility, in a public commission for the Bay View / Hunter's
Point neighborhood where he works—a 15-foot horn player constructed
from the component forms of a disassembled gun.
*
Now for the first time you can rent or buy PLASTIC MAN for home
use:
iTunes, Pre-Order: Sept 11
iTunes/Amazon and GooglePlay, Day of Release: Oct 16
For more information and trailer: plasticmanbarrish.com
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