Art Adventures: Alcatraz

On the Saturday evening of June 16 I hopped on a ferry and made the voyage out to Alcatraz. I wasn't playing tourist for the day, I was going to see art. The car company Scion put on this huge party with bands, performance, fashion and art. Some of my favorite Bay Area painters were doing live painting. Kelly Tunstall was there, Ferris Plock, Sam Flores, the list goes on.

The painting wasn't the only highlight. There was tons of other chaos happening all around. The infirmary was taken over by Vau de Vire, wow, it was quite a spectacle walking down the hallway looking into different rooms with clowns in bathtubs and poetry readings and just insanity. At the end of the hallway was a cabaret performance involving the resurrection of ill fated girls in long striped stockings and boy shorts.

In the Shower room, the first stop for new inmates arriving on Alcatraz in it's prison days, was a fashion show with a number of designers such as Bahar Shapar, Del Forte, Oda Style and Concept work by students of Art Institute of California. The runway was in the old shower bed, it was truly strange and beautiful.

Just upstairs from the shower room was the old mess hall. It had been taken over by several hip hop groups, break-dancing and visuals by Blasthaus. The party was pumpin' in that room, that's where the booze was after all.

I have to give big props to Prem Kumta, who somehow, with the help of lots of other people, managed to pull this thing off. It all had to be wrapped up, and the island ready for a batch of tourists in the morning.

The video is a little long this week, but there was just so much to see, so check it out.

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• art
• adventures
• alcatraz
• scion
• exprescion
• fashion
• vau
• di
• vire
• matt
• petty

[bojee7]

I agree, it seems a little twisted, especially the fashion show.

[MzHyPhYQuEeN]

i was just there this saturday i loved it been there so many times but saturday was the only time i went to alcatraz lol that was our tour guide jose he is also a native american

[squiggey]

Don't like it. I think Alcatraz should remain the hell it was. Not only in respect for those who died there but also as a reminder. There are still prisons like this around and we must not forget. Let the tourists experience the pain of those who sat there.

[paco71684]

what a great concept to allow all these artists the freedom to create their art in a place where freedom was taken away. would of loved to have been there.

[StuckinVermont]

Zowie! What an AMAZING event! perfect for Alcatraz!  well-captured too!