awhile back i gave away some inkjet transfer "postcards" on flickr to whoever said they wanted on. one of the people i sent a card to asked for my address so he could send something in return. i'd just about forgotten about it when a packaged arrived from him. in the package was a cool polaroid and a dvd!

the dvd is called the run up and profiles different contemporary artists. it's really cool. most of the artists came up through the graffiti scene. there are definately artists i'd like to learn more about as well as artists i don't really care much about. but the majority i was pretty impressed with.

some of the vignettes could have easily been expanded into a full length in-depth documentary. one of my art professors at college used to tell us that it was important to be able to talk about your work. some of the artists here were able to really talk about their work, while others weren't as good at it.

one thing that i would have liked to have seen was more discussion about technique and influence. it's my usual gripe that without some sort of historical context things that are not really new, may appear so to the ignorant. a lack of history/influence discussion often makes me wonder if the artists are even aware of what went on before or do they truly believe what they are doing is somehow new and original when in fact it may not be?

the other problem was the lack of women artists. the propaganda on the box says featuring 26 of the most eminent artists of today, but only 2 or 3 of the 26 were women. and the women artists were some of my favourite sections. i just wish there were more.

but aside from these problems it's really worth seeing.