This is one of the best films about the power of art.
Art as protest!
She went to war for the people she loved and who loved her back – the bowery junkies, the late-night queens, and the forgotten. Nan Godlin spent three decades photographing the low life – the jagged, raw, scary company. And she nearly died herself from an over dose of opioids.
Artist Nan Goldin set up an art activist group called PAIN -
She campaigned to force the Sackler name removed from art galleries –
“Hear us Roar!”
At the Guggenheim museum New York – with blood red banners they all chanted …
.”400,000 dead/ 200 dead each day / shame on Sadler / take down their names."
They roar to blow the roof off! As white papers fall like snow…with the words
“if only Oxy-Contin is controlled how substantially would it improve sales?”
In the Sunday Times 15th January 2023 and the art critic Wlldemar Januszczak says this art film is the best art film he’s seen. “For her art is a friend, a refuge, a family. When she and her buddies stormed the Guggenheim - they weren’t looking for easy publicity. They were hoping to rescue art from the Sacklers.”
ART as protest
Picasso - Guernica
Goya – Third of May 1808
John & Yoko – Bed ins for Peace
Suffragette Mary Richardson – Slashed a Velazquez at the National galleries
The folk club was busy for
Gaughan’s return gig here with both young and older fans. He prefers to stand
tall with his guitar as he plays and sings.
Dick Gaughan is a Scottish
traditional folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. He sings of Scottish heroes and of stories of our lost past and long
forgotten voices. Gaughan has been playing the circuits both at home and
abroad for many years now and he is a legend among folk circles. He is also one of
the most down-to-earth and likeable artists without pretensions of any
kind.
He sang songs by Brian
McNeill, Robert Burns, Ewan McColl and Gaughan - What You Do With What you've Got, Yew Tree, Outlaws and Dreamers, No
God and Few Heroes, Whatever Happened to We Shall Overcome, and the
outstanding Burns song Westlin Winds.
He prefers to learn from the
generations before that have all the knowledge. ‘If you're lucky you can add a wee bit'He said, 'I don't go for autobiographical songs, there's more interesting topics
than me.’ He took traditional folk stories and songs from the library
archives and put new melodies to them and he draws from both the Irish and
Scottish folk traditions. He also spoke of legend songwriter Yip Harburg who
wrote Over the Rainbow and Finnegan's Rainbow (who found a pot of gold and it
destroyed him) His songs can seem hard
hitting but are also full of thoughtful optimistic themes. Like American folk
singer Dylan his songs and voice don't come easily to the shore and they tell
of straight talking stories. He is also a stand out guitarist and plays
with a unique style with open chords and dramatic timing that he learnt from
guitarist Davy Graham.
I first heard Gaughan play
in the 70s in Edinburgh
when I was dating a folk guitarist who raved about how incredible and very
distinctive his playing was. Many years later I heard Dick again at Milngavie
Folk club in 2007 and this was an intimate gig where his chat between songs was
worth going for alone.
One of the
great troubadours of life's journeys. You come away from his gigs questioning
but ultimately renewed in the faith of our shared humanity. He sang, 'Keep your eyes on the road ahead,
Keep looking at the light.... '
At this gig I thought -
music is not about how good an artist might feel about their music but rather
how much joy they can give their audience.
Gaughan was well supported
by guitarists Robin Miller, and Mike Simons.
Robin Miller
Its' not just what you're
born with, but what you do with what you've got. What's the use of two
strong legs, if you only run away. And what use is the
finest voice if you've nothing good to say? What's the use of two
good ears, if you don't hear those you love. Words & Music by Si Kahn
He sang not of resolutions
but of holding on to your vision. Gaughan was warmly received and seemed
to enjoy the gig. I felt that his substance, refreshing honesty and questioning
words must have impacted on the younger members of the audience and on the
older ones too! Dick Gaughan Photo
gallery - http://pkimage.co.uk/dickgaughan
This photo of Gaughan was taken at Milngavie Folk Club in 2011
Dick Gaughan
Interview with Phil Cunningham Radio Scotland March 2012
Dick chose
five songs that have influenced him –
(1) Big Bill
Broonzy – Glory of Love
(2) The
Shadows – Apache
(3) The
Beatles – Love Me Do
(4) Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues
(5) Davy Graham – 67
Gaughan
talked about his musical influences. His chat is often profound, sometimes
humorous and always entertaining.
He said
that The Shadows were the first eclectic guitar group and that back then we were discovering all these new
sounds for the first time. Before that
nearly every American singer seemed to
be called ‘Frankie’ and sang songs about what it was like ‘to be a young lad at
summer camp!’
Gaughan
said that ‘Love Me Do’ from the
Beatles was another defining song.
He became
obsessed with songs - he was like a magpie and studied songs at the National
Library. In 1979 the Thatcher government
made him first think about ‘why’ he
was singing the songs and he became a political artist then. He said that Traditional music is about fair play, the
totality of life and about the community.
Nowadays the barrage of media attempts to put forwards ‘one’ message he claimed and he likes to be part of
what he calls the ‘awkward squad’ who are the grain of sand in the ointment and
have other ways of looking at reality - and try to at least think about it!
He spoke
about Dylan’s beautifully crafted songs that punched out images such as ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Gaughan played
with Aly Bain’s Boys of the Lough and
a punk band called Five Hand Reel. Like
many others on the folkscene back then he developed a drink problem and then he
had a breakdown. He had to clean up and dry up.
Lastly he
talked about Davy Graham’s guitar
which was tuned differently. His musical ideas were unbelievably creative - he
was predictably unpredictable! Hearing
Graham's guitar it becomes clear where Gaughan had learned his distinctive playing style
from. His list of favourite song choices is interesting too and shows the
breadth of his roots in both traditions and more contemporary musical
styles.
Gaughan is
best known for singing the songs Both
Sides the Tweed and Westlin’ Winds.
Some very few artists have the ability to transport and
transcend the moment, and Dick does so with forceful guitar playing and classic
traditional songs with a strong message and a deep expressive, growling
voice. He draws from both Irish and Scottish folk traditions. I first
heard Gaughan play in the 70s in Edinburgh
when I was dating a folk guitarist who raved about how incredible and very
distinctive his playing was. Many years later (after being in America for
nearly ten years and having three children) I heard Dick again at Milngavie
Folk club in 2007, and this was an intimate gig where his chat between songs
was worth going for alone. In his own so distinctive style, Gaughan hammers and
speaks with his acoustic guitar. He performs traditional folk tunes, Robert
Burns, favourite cover songs and his own songs.
He doesn't play the predictable
smoothed-over sugar box 'tartan shortbread' songs - and he may not be to everyone's
taste. Gaughan is plain spoken and holds firmly held beliefs on the rights of
everyman and at one time he took past folk stories and songs from the library
archives and put new melodies to them. You come away from his gigs questioning
butultimately renewed in the faith of our
shared humanity. Dick Gaughan is a Scottish living legend, and he usually
performs every January at 'Celtic Connections' Glasgow.
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