Movie Night, Anyone? The Work of Ryan Trecartin

The painted boys of Attilalou remind me of the video work of Ryan Trecartin, who was in his senior year the first year I was at RISD. Mostly he was a mysterious figure at parties and the subject of much admiration and speculation. He's done really well since RISD -- multiple Whitney Biennale entries, pieces in the Saatchi Collection, winner of the Wolgin Prize (the largest cash prize to an artist awarded in the US, I believe), two rooms devoted to his work at the Younger Than Jesus show at the New Museum, on and on.

I find his work incredibly engaging, wonderfully irreverent, beautifully written and really funny. But it does take some patience. The clips collected below are from his feature length film I-Be Area. Trecartin plays multiple parts in his films, and here he plays the role of Pasta, who is something of a publicist, or creator of identity. I feel unqualified to parse the thing, but in a very general sense it seems to be about identity and how it is created, manipulated.

Anyway, check it out. It's funny, esp. the bead store sequence:



Oh, Jengo. And Pasta is born ...



And off Pasta goes to meet Santine and the the girls in "ol' New Jersey" ...