Inventing the Underground.

Published Oct 26 2008, 07:10 PM by Ken Greenleaf

I finally got around to see ‘Constant Quarry’ the Space show of photographs by Todd Seelie, a Brooklyn-based photographer who, in the words of the Space press release, has ‘inexhaustibly photographed the underground music, art, and momentous DIY counterculture that has saturated his borough and spread into other areas across the country.’

‘Inexhaustibly’ is correct. There are dozens of photographs filling the walls stacked one above the other. There are drunks, mosh pits, young people working on stuff, wrestling in the mud, playing music, floating on boats made of junk, making big assemblages of more junk, taking their clothes off, wearing t-shirts with nasty sayings on them, showing of their bandages, mattresses and and so forth.

Seelie is a remarkably good photographer, and has been able to pick up the telling detail in the scenes he has documented with such energy.

I was stuck, though, on ‘momentous.’ That I didn’t see at all. In fact, except for the fact there were more people (and where aren’t there more people), it seemed a lot like 1967. I found myself getting more and more gloomy as a walked through the show, and the refrain that struck me as I left was “these kids think they’re inventing something.”

The current idea about the sixties was formed by The Grateful Dead and Woodstock, but in the East Village and lots of other places there was a very different 1960’s going on. The peace and love college kids weren’t really part of it, except for the sex. And some of the drugs.

OK, we didn’t have digital photography and video cameras, we had to scrimp together money for 16mm or use super-eight, there were fewer tattoos and no mosh pits. There were weird drugs (DMT) and weirder art events (Hermann Nitsch’s animal-guts performances). There were cheap tenements and the garbage strike in NYC, the Hell’s Angels owning a block on East 3^rd St.

Of course we thought we were inventing it too, and probably had some crusty old farts grumbling ‘they think they’re inventing something momentous.’

Filed Under: Innocent Bystander

Joe Hill coming to Maine!

Ray is at #3 on the Billboard Top 200!

Follow the Portland Phoenix

All Blogs

On The Download (2,163)
Laser Orgy (33)
Dont Quote Me (518)
Talking Politics (1,523)
Outside The Frame (305)
Phlog (1,419)

Filed Under: Innocent Bystander

Boston Phoenix
May You Live in Interesting Times
Published 2/14/2009 by Ken Greenleaf

Word comes that the artworld version of a major bank meltdown occurred in London a few days ago. At a big Christie's auction paintings by Mark Rothko and Francis Bacon went unsold.

Boston Phoenix
Andrew Wyeth has died at 91
Published 1/16/2009 by Ken Greenleaf

The headline in New York Times, reporting the death of Andrew Wyeth at the age of 91, said he was both ‘revered and ridiculed.' That's a fitting phrase to use, not because it's true, but because it was clearly the way Wyeth wanted it.

more by Ken Greenleaf

Arc printing | November 20, 2009

Simple and distinct | November 13, 2009

Jazz on paper | October 23, 2009

People, unhid | October 09, 2009

Deep layers | September 25, 2009

See all articles by: Ken Greenleaf

Latest Comments

Lee Ranaldo picks his favorite albums of the decade - why is the camera facing the interviewer the whole time?

By mike on 11-26-2009 in On The Download

Khazei Sneaking Up? - As voters learn more about Alan Khazei, they will want to vote him in. He is an extraordinary public...

By vicki kennedy on 11-25-2009 in Talking Politics

Khazei Sneaking Up? - ****Updated Nov 25** with copies of letters from Privacy Commissioner of Canada and an audio. Suppressed...

By Mar on 11-25-2009 in Talking Politics

PODCAST: David Plouffe on the early days of the Obama campaign - **Updated Nov 25** with copies of letters from Privacy Commissioner of Canada and an audio. Suppressed...

By Mar on 11-25-2009 in Phlog

Phoenix meets the Phoenix: hugely awesome band to perform intimate gig for lucky Boston Phoenix readers - Christian Louboutin replica shoes are available at attractive rates in all outlets across the world....

By Gucci Sneakers on 11-25-2009 in On The Download

Latest Comments from About Town

Inventing the Underground.

Leave a Comment