Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 4 February 2019
‘Velvet Buzzsaw’ a gloriously gory art-world satire

By JAKE COYLE paintings “visionary.”
Associated Press The whole transactional
The art installation, so often system goes into overdrive
a playground in the con- to posthumously turn Dease
temporary art museum, is in into a major artist and,
Dan Gilroy’s gloriously gory more importantly, into an
satire “Velvet Buzzsaw” a industry. The million-dollar
terror chamber. Interactiv- sales are orchestrated, the
ity is involuntary. Los Angeles museum show
“Velvet Buzzsaw ,” which strong-armed, the paintings
opens on the Art Basel Mi- carefully parceled to stimu-
ami Beach fair, assembles late just the right amount of
a glittering gallery of art- demand. Vandewalt gets
world snobs, strivers and book rights.
divas. A cocktail of crit- The paintings themselves
ics, collectors, buyers and we take for the genuine
even a couple actual art- article. Unlike the frivo-
ists, it’s the kind of easy- lous installations that flitter
target collection that Chris- through “Velvet Buzzsaw”
topher Guest might have (like a metallic sphere that
taken aim at. emits various sensations
But Gilroy, who memora- when you stick your hand
bly skewered “if it bleeds, into its holes), Dease’s
it leads” TV news in “Night- This image released by Netflix shows Rene Russo, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from “Velvet works, deemed “outsider
crawler,” has something Buzzsaw.” art,” represent something
darker, or at least bloodier Associated Press “substantial” in a shallow
in mind. In “Velvet Buzz- critic, “god” in this design- fiti artist sensation (Daveed Dease dies, she stumbles contemporary art world.
saw,” when a painting er-label universe; Rhodora Diggs), the other a sullen upon the paintings that Only Josephine knows
fetches a “killing” at auc- Haze (Rene Russo), a big- has-been who has turned litter his apartment, and that Dease, whose murky
tion, the payoff might be time dealer whose old his studio into a profitable quickly realizes it’s a ma- past is slowly revealed,
literal, and any subsequent nickname is both the film’s assembly line (John Mal- jor discovery. She swipes had wished his artwork
shredding is going to be a title and the tattoo on her kovich); and Josephina them all before they’re to destroyed. At first merely
lot more sinister than any- shoulder; buyer Gretchen (Zawe Ashton), a struggling be tossed in the garbage. creepy (we learn his reds
thing cooked up by Banksy. (Toni Collette), who can protegee to Haze. When she shows them to were painted in blood), fig-
Among them are Morf manipulate private buy- It’s on Josephina that the Vandewalt, with whom ures in the paintings begin
Vandewalt (Jake Gyllen- ers and museums, alike; a plot turns. When an elderly she’s sleeping, he imme- to subtly move, snatch and
haal), a power-wielding pair of painters, one a graf- neighbor named Ventril diately pronounces the kill.q

Paul Webb is vulnerable Rustin Man on

‘Drift Code’

By PABLO GORONDI
Associated Press
Rustin Man, “Drift Code”
(Domino)
Paul Webb had been
working for years on a fol-
low-up to his first album as
Rustin Man — “Out of Sea-
son,” the stupendous 2002
collaboration with Portis-
head singer Beth Gibbons
— but other projects kept
getting in the way.
Then there was the issue of This cover image released by Domino shows “Drift Code,” a
being able to perform the release by Rustin Man.
sounds in his head, which Associated Press
led to a lengthy process the skills of former school- opener “Vanishing Heart”
of learning several instru- mate and Talk Talk drum- — a Dear Jane letter —
ments — Webb was the mer Lee Harris during ses- “Martian Garden” and
bass player in Talk Talk — sions at the barn in south- “All Summer,” as Webb’s
from accordion, harmon- east England which serves voice turns out to be an
ica and xylophone to a both as recording studio eerie, warts-and-all com-
wide selection of guitars and Webb’s family home. bination of Robert Wyatt’s
and keyboards. The outcome of the pro- high-pitched oscillations
Along the way, Webb re- cess is “Drift Code,” where and David Bowie’s, with
corded musical fragments the influence of the rural the vulnerability it showed
on cassette and relied on setting is felt on songs like on his last albums. q