October | 2010 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for October, 2010

Studio Visit: Richard Eagan of the Coney Island Hysterical Society

Posted in art, tagged Coney Island, Coney Island Hysterical Society, Richard Eagan on October 26, 2010| 2 Comments »

Artist Richard Eagan's lovely alter ego Kay Sera with Oceanic Baths. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

In 1985, the artists of the Coney Island Hysterical Society created and operated a Spookhouse behind Nathan’s, exhibited artwork at Sideshows by the Seashore and had a group show at LaMama. Society co-founders Richard Eagan and Philomena Marano continue to collaborate on Coney-themed art. A recent visit to the Gowanus studio shared by Eagan and Marano inspired this two-part post…

I began my career as a visual artist with a series of dreams about Coney island. Ten in one year (1978) – Steeplechase, The Thunderbolt, many locales, and I realized I had hand skills to evoke those places. Eventually I understood that’s what artists did. It snuck up on me. Generally speaking, I launched into a series of realist-based portraits of many of the places I had known in Coney Island. I needed to bring these places to life. Although my work has developed and changed through the years, I still return to the architectural portraiture of my early work.

Oddly, though, one of my very first pieces was an installation for “Tricks and Treats at the World in Wax Musee” curated by Dick Zigun back in… 1980? I filled a display case with a piece evoking the demolition of the Steeplechase Pavilion of Fun, titled “I Must Have Been Dreaming”- the curving space of the Panama Slide was filled with jagged, broken shards of wood.

During the Spookhouse Project of 1984-85, I began a series of paintings with bulls-eye imagery, and I imagined a few of them might want to have those shards bursting through the picture plane into real space, as if a wall had exploded out. Though they were not executed then, I returned to the idea in a series of small 12″ square canvasses in the 1990’s. They were an immediate hit, and I sold quite a few of those.

The short hop to combining the Coney work with the exploding architecture was a no-brainer once I accepted that the Coney Island of my childhood was imploding, burning, and would never return. I didn’t foresee the Thor paradigm, of course, but I needed to create pieces expressing my anguish over the ruins of my beloved playground. Hence the work with exploding shards, broken glass, and faded, ghostly signage. “Oceanic Baths” (not an actual Coney place name) was the first in this series, and the piece that helped me combine constructed sculptural work with abstract expressionist-style paintwork and pop culture imagery.

I expect I will be working the various styles in different combinations for some time to come as the future of the place of my inspiration and dreams unfolds.

Photos from the Demolition: Historic Bank of Coney Island

Posted in Photo Album, Photo of the Day, Real Estate, tagged Bank of Coney Island, Bruce Handy, demolition, historic buildings, Joe Sitt, scaffolding, Thor Equities on October 25, 2010| 3 Comments »

Bank of Coney Island Demolition. October 21, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Last week, the doomed Bank of Coney Island had holes punched in its wall by Joe Sitt’s demo men in prep for the installation of demolition scaffolding. The northeast corner of West 12th and Bowery has taken on the brutal look of a torture chamber. The victim is the 87-year-old building itself, the first of four historic buildings in Coney Island marked for demolition by Thor Equities.

As we wrote in “Photo of the Day: The Bank of Coney Island, Now & Then” (Oct 14, 2010):

Shame on Thor Equities for not even responding to the written pleas of individuals and organizations to re-purpose the building or at least save the facade. Shame on the City of New York for sacrificing the building by rezoning the parcel for a 30-story high rise in July 2009.

Real estate speculator Joe Sitt bought the Bank of Coney Island building in 2005 for $3 million and kept it vacant. ATZ knows at least two potential tenants whose proposals for leasing and rehabbing the building went nowhere. Alas, Joe Sitt’s price to lease the property– $500,000– was too steep. Perhaps Thor did not want to be encumbered by tenants or leases because the building was marked for demolition from the moment it was purchased?

Bank of Coney Island Demolition Scaffolding. October 25, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Thanks to Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy for documenting this unfortunate situation in his flickr set. “They built the scaffolding on the West 12th Street side today,” says Bruce, who notes that the police stopped to ask a passersby what was written on the permits posted on the wall. Though the signs are newly posted, what they have to say is not news: the Department of Buildings issued the demolition permit on August 13.

During Thor Equities’ 40 days of demolition, ATZ will continue to post documentary photos. Help us keep this disgraceful demo in the public eye by sending newsworthy pix and info to hello[AT]triciavita[DOT]com. Hey, maybe a sympathetic insider will send us a photo from inside the torture chamber! Be careful…

It's official: the City of NY approves the demolition. October 25, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Halloween In Coney Island: Behind the Scenes at Creep Show at the Freak Show

Posted in amusement park, Events, tagged Coney Island, Coney Island USA, Creepshow, freak show, Halloween, Haunted House, Kate Dale, Marie Roberts, The Ride Inspector's Nightmare on October 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On Friday night after a visit to Luna Park’s Nights of Horror, we made our way to Coney Island USA for the first Creepshow at the Freakshow of the season. Started by CIUSA artistic director Dick Zigun in 1998, the annual Halloween event takes the audience on a haunted tour of the 1917 Childs Restaurant Building which is the art organization’s home. “To be honest, this show, ‘The Ride Inspector’s Nightmare,’ is the best of them all!,” Zigun tells ATZ. “Other notables were ‘Phantom of the Presidential Wax Museum’ two years ago. Also Scott Baker playing a frozen Walt Disney… not to mention the first Creepshow about Childs Restaurant cooking the bodies of children.”

After purchasing tickets and drinks at the Freak Bar, guests are ushered into the sideshow theater for the chief ride inspector’s retirement party. Coked up and drunk, the zombie-like chief and his garrulous assistant reminisce about gory ride accidents and share the blame around. “No more reports!,” the chief barks repeatedly before sleepwalking us down a back stairway to the basement and then up another back stairway to the museum, where he is put on trial for negligence. Since this is an interactive show, the jury is the audience. Along the way, we’re treated to a series of macabre tableaux by Creepshow designer Kate Dale and spooky murals by artist-in-residence Marie Roberts. Photography is not permitted, but we did a Q & A with both artists, who give us a behind the scenes peek at the show…

We’ve been a fan of Kate Dale’s work ever since her homage to Fragonard’s Girl on a Swing in the 1999 Mermaid Parade. The Juilliard prop shop supervisor has won “Best Mermaid” and “Best Float” more times than anyone else in the history of the parade. For the past five years, Dale has been the Creepshow’s designer.

ATZ: Kate, how many sets or tableaux did you create this year?

Kate: Some of them bleed into each other, but I’d say there are 7. They vary in terms of complexity.

ATZ: Which one (or ones) is your favorite?

Kate: I have some favorites… I think I’ve been dreaming of the one I call the doll room the longest. It’s inspired by Disney’s “It’s a small world after all” and also Barbarella with a nod to Chucky. The dolls of the world have gone berserk and murdered a hapless family. The happy dolls always seem menacing. And the basement room’s water feature is one of the most inspiring parts of the building for me in for sheer weirdness. My other favorite was an afterthought, we built it in 20 minutes opening night. I won’t spoil the surprise.

Creepshow at the Freakshow 2010. Photo © Laure Leber via Coney Island USA

ATZ: Wherever did you find all those mannequins that were in the museum’s ride cars? They look like antiques!

Kate: They come for various sources, some were hanging around the museum already, some are loaners from friends. I’m always on the lookout for dummies and body parts. I got the little boys from Build it Green. Thanks Build it Green!

ATZ: Which one of Marie’s paintings is your favorite this year?

Kate: Well the stairway is pretty epic in scale, and repeated viewings really pay off. You discover different details each time.

ATZ: Which Creepshow was your favorite and why?

Kate: I loved the Phantom of the Presidential Wax Museum because I think it told a great story and the Presidential shooting gallery where patrons shot a cutout Kennedy with ping pong balls was probably the sickest most wrong thing I’ve ever been personally responsible for.

For more than a decade, Coney Island USA’s artist-in-residence Marie Roberts has painted the banners for the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. Her canvas advertisements, including one for Creepshow at the Freakshow, adorn the CIUSA building 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

ATZ: Marie, tell us about some of the murals that you painted for this year’s Creepshow.

Marie: My task was to turn the back staircase into a surreal nightmare roller coaster disaster, none of which I would choose to paint on my own. I studied paintings at the MET and MOMA for ideas and made drawings. I consciously put in homages to a couple of favorites. St. Sebastian pierced by arrows became the head of the stairs person impaled on rails. My two uncles who were at Dreamland the night of the fire are painted as little kids with zippered mouths, a nod to Magritte. I didn’t realize till I was laying the mural out there that there are elements of Picasso’s “Guernica” as well.

Conversely or weirdly, I saw the abstract expressionist show at MOMA before I painted the welcome to Dreamland sign at the head of the stairs in the basement, and the Hellgate devil burning the Creation angel are probably the most expressionist thing I have ever painted.

I love how the three dimensional ticket booth works with the staircase murals.

It is all too fresh for me to have any perspective all I can think of is how to make them better.

ATZ: Which one is your favorite of Kate’s sets or tableaux?

Marie: I love the way Kate transforms the building. This year I am amazed at how she transformed the basement. Every viewpoint in the first room hangs together, and there are surprises in every cut out and nook. The second room is also together visually, not an easy task. I am amazed at how she can think so three dimensionally. I can only think in terms of flat planes.

Coney Island USA, 1208 Surf Ave. Corner of Surf Avenue and West 12th Street, Coney Island. Creepshow at the Freakshow runs nightly from Friday, October 22, through Halloween. Check website for hours. Tickets are $10 at the door. On Saturday, October 23, CIUSA will host a party and the first-ever Sleepover at the Freakshow after the last Creepshow Tour. Tickets for the fund raiser are $40-$75.