'Dragzilla' and Other Artistic Curiosities
April 29, 2003 -- -- If there's a place in the world for Dragzilla — a 50-foot drag queen — it's got to be New York, but not the Tribeca Film Festival.
Dragzilla is a short film about a New Jersey drag queen who grows 50 times her size after buying black-market makeup. Now, this sexually ambiguous giant is out for revenge, one broken high heel at a time.
Most film festivals aren't exactly itching to show Dragzilla. But the Arlene Grocery Picture Show isn't like any other film festival.
In reaction to Sundance, Cannes and other snooty film fests, Arlene's will show virtually any film, especially those by filmmakers who've gotten the boot elsewhere.
"It's a protest festival," says organizer Dave Hollander. "But it's also a good time."
Arlene's is especially interested in giving screen time to promising artists who — for a variety of reasons other than talent — won't get screen time at New York's Tribeca Film Festival, beginning next month.
The majority of Arlene's entrants are not exactly creating a buzz in Hollywood, and leaving no bad film behind is a tall order. In all, in three days Arlene's screened 149 films, many of which will never again be publicly screened (not a bad idea in some cases).
This might be your only chance to catch The Anti-Santa, in which Santa Claus gets a lobotomy to cope with the commercialization of Christmas. Look for St. Nick to box Dragzilla in the sequel.
This week, The Wolf Files salutes the courage of artists who've blazed their own trail, like Hugh McMahon, aka "The Picasso of Pumpkins," and sculptor Tom Dukich, who collected a trash barrel of free AOL software and turned it into huge, hideous salute to a company he reviles.
The Wolf Files also looks at Pussycat Painting, Porta-Potty Muralists and other strange mediums of human expression.
Suitable for Hanging?
Porta-Potty Painting: Most people who draw on bathroom walls don't consider themselves artists. But times have changed.
Dozens of well-regarded New York artists are competing to paint the exterior of New York City's first public Porta-Potties.
Among those who hope to see their careers go into the toilet: muralist Billy Miller, who created scenery for the hit Broadway show Rent.
"The Porta-Potties will be all over New York," says his representative. "It's actually a great way to reach a captive audience."
Meowing Masterpieces: If your cat is always brushing up on you, now you can brush up on your cat — with kitty body painting.
In New Zealand, the body-piercing and tattooing culture has given way to a new breed of furry, four-legged works of art.
In Why Paint Cats? (Ten Speed Press), Burton Silver traces the new rage back thousands of years to various Eastern cultures. Now, art pioneers in California are using electrostatic paint brushes and nontoxic hair dyes to render their felines in Nouveau Classicism and Avant Funk.
Cat painting raises many ethical questions. Silver maintains that camouflage artistry can render a feline less vulnerable to canine attack while bold, avian-scaring designs save countless birds and protect crops.
Then there's the issue of painting a creature that spends most of its life licking itself.
But if you really want to be left with a bad taste in your mouth, one Beverly Hills matron paid $5,000 to have a tuxedo painted on her tabby, telling friends that she replaced her ex-husband with this hep cat.
The Picasso of Pumpkins: Charging $200 for a carved pumpkin? Are you out of your gourd? Hugh McMahon makes a living sculpting fruit and vegetables. His work has been shown at the White House, not to mention galleries all over the world, and his clients include Regis Philbin and Naomi Campbell.
In the disco era, McMahon became renowned, carving elaborate fruit centerpieces for New York's Studio 54 nightclub. International acclaim came with his deft pumpkin head renditions of Bob Hope, Bette Midler, Donald Trump, and Prince Charles.
"In my art, you can't be too sentimental," says the 48-year-old New Yorker, lamenting that some of his best work spoils if not eaten within five days.
Since pumpkin sculpting is seasonal, McMahon dabbles in watermelon. He's currently preparing a five-melon series next month depicting the life from cradle to grave of famed gourmet James Beard, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth.
McMahon's work has been on display all over the world, even at New York's famed Whitney Museum — although in that case he provided the banquet centerpiece for the museum's 65th anniversary.
You've Got Junk Mail: After a decade of fighting with America Online over his bill, artist Tom Dukich of Spokane, Wash., exacted revenge — one free disk at a time.
AOL software disks are everywhere. They arrive in the mail. They're stuffed into magazines. Many people just throw them out. Dukich kept every single one. In 10 years, he had enough to fill a 30-gallon garbage can — representing every era of AOL, from version 3.0 to version 8.0.
At long last, in January, Dukich, now 56, finished his sculpture — a giant AOL CD with a mock label framed inside a garbage can lid with all the free CDs spilling out of the trash can.
"Version 7 says you get 1,025 hours for free if you use the time within 45 days of signing up," Dukich said, unveiling his work at Spokane's Huneke Gallery. "There are 1,080 hours in 45 days. So to make use of their offer, you'd have to be on the Internet around the clock for 43 days."
Buck Wolf is entertainment producerat ABCNEWS.com. The Wolf Files ispublished Tuesdays. If you want to receive weekly notice whena new column is published, join the e-maillist.