Today I want to dedicate the coffee break to talk about art related to cinema.
The idea came to me listening, as every
week, the episode of Cinefact's PODCAST (https://www.cinefacts.it/),
if ever someone from the Cinefact staff will come on this page I thank you for
the 2/3 hours a week of cinema and relaxed chats that you give me every time.
In the episode number 152, in fact, they
talked about the story behind a series of movie posters made in Ghana by local
artists to advertise films that were shown by "mobile cinemas" in the
80s and 90s and that today have become famous in the world of film lovers
thanks to the interest of a Chicago art dealer who has made them known to the
world and has also started to sell them. You can find some of these posters by
searching online or on Instagram for "Deadly Prey Gallery".
The great thing about these posters is that
they are very particular and remind in a not too authentic way the movie they
advertise. The images are always very colorful, full of action and sometimes
even some details not present in the movies, remember that the purpose of these
posters was to attract audiences to the cinema even lying.
But to return to the history of these
posters, we must go back to the late 1980s when mobile cinema enterprises were
flourishing in Ghana, bringing film screenings to villages and rural areas
without theaters or electricity. These improvised "video clubs" -
usually consisting of a diesel generator, a VCR and a TV or projector loaded
onto a truck - traveled around the country showing Hollywood and Bollywood
blockbusters, as well as West African films.
To attract viewers, the video clubs needed
to advertise their offerings. But they didn't have the original movie posters,
or the resources to print alternatives-the country's military rulers had even
restricted the import of printing presses.
So they began making their own, commissioning
local artists to hand-paint them on used flour sacks.
The posters have been making waves in the
art world ever since. The early originals are now worth big bucks to
collectors.
As I mentioned, the works are famous for
their flashy and exuberant style, full of muscle, blood and exaggerated
features.
They were designed to sell movie tickets, so the goal was really to make each poster as unique as possible, or even as crazy as possible.
Occasionally, as you can see on their
Instagram page, artists would take creative license by representing events that
weren't in the movies.
In the 1990s, at the height of the film
club business, several dozen artists were employed to produce the posters and
the most popular names - or their aliases - included Joe Mensah, Nyen Kumah,
Leonardo, Socrates, Death is Wonder, Frank Armah and D.A. Jasper.
Demand for video club posters in Ghana
began declining in the mid-2000s as home viewing became more prevalent and
printing became more practical than commissioning original artwork, which took
days to create. Since then, many artists have abandoned the business, but some
have kept the tradition alive and now work on commission, making copies of
original posters or painting entirely new ones of old and new films.
In 2015, Brian Chankin opened Deadly Prey
Gallery, a Chicago-based studio that works with Ghanaian artists. Prices for
commissioned posters range from $300 to $600, and the most popular ones are
from big 80s action blockbusters like Predator, Terminator, anything with Kurt
Russell, anything with Jean-Claude Van Damme, and horror is probably the most
popular genre.
In conclusion, I decided to talk about this story because it impressed me a lot for various reasons, certainly for the human genius that is able to find its way into the most difficult situations and in making it can arrive at original creations that exceed the purpose for which they were intended.
Another reason is surely the pleasure of
discovering an African form of art that has become a cult in the rest of the
world and that confirms my idea that, if it had the means, the African
Continent could make a much greater contribution to " mainstream" art
and culture than it does.
And, finally, the last point is linked to
the importance of cinema as a vehicle of communication and, in general, as a
form of art that can encourage and inspire, as well, other art and creativity
even in very different contexts.
Link:
https://deadlypreygallery.com/
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