Deadly Prey Gallery Presents/ Alien, Evil Dead 2, Heat, Mask, and The Sopranos

What if my husband and I did things outside the one date a month I have started to schedule for us? What if we did things as they came up?

Then I would have more shit to write about on this damn blog!

My first time at the Museum of Human Achievement was to spend money on prints from the Deadly Prey Gallery. All credit around knowing that this event was going down goes to my husband, like most things that I end up going to - he told me about it. While he does not have a TikTok he still makes use of Facebook and Instagram like the hipster old man that he is, and I really need to appreciate him for that.

Every time we take the route from our house to the east side, it is like a drive back in time as we pass house after house that we were pushed out of due to lack of space for our family and lack of funds. Like damn, it would have been nice to have been able to walk to Medici coffee and whatever those bougie shops are, when we lived in the neighborhood it was just a used tire shop and rental dance hall. But also, fuck is it something to see your white side gentrify the minority (latinx) spaces and not get to benefit from your colonizing genes, I have a blue eyed baby let me (w)in!

And so the cycle continues.

Like the consumerists/wannabe capitalists that we are, we bought tickets for the chance to buy prints from this Chicago based gallery that showcases movie posters prints made in Ghana. Our understanding is that the proceeds go to a group of Ghanaians who create bizarre hand painted movie posters.

Based on a tradition from the 80s and 90s when the cinematic infrastructure of the country was based around mobile VHS screenings, the way to advertise the services was to get local artists to draw posters that were hung on the outside of small trucks. The trucks were then driven around as a way to let the locals know what movies were available.

The art is a folk reinterpretation or reimagining of classic film posters, as some of the artists knew little more about their commissions other than some basic details. As you look through the images you will see different artists take on what they thought Alien was about: one artist giving all the xenomoprhs guns and another realizing the horror was all in the concept of face huggers. Each poster leaves you wondering, what gave them the impression that it was going to be about that?

The group represented all seem to be male, and the images reflect stereotypes around that gender with hyper masculine imagery: so much gore, many beheadings, every movie is an action or horror flick, actors unrelated to the film are added in, and there is unnecessary nudity (unnecessary to the plot but not to the art). When there are dicks, they are aggressive and menacingly hard. Breasts are full and high, but there is no softness to their use. And death is everywhere.

As this is my first known exposure to artists from the region, I am not aware of the prevalent symbolism in their art but the skeletons are in a style that is recognizable and appealing to me. They have the same angular whiteness and disproportionate shape that recall the skeletons seen in Frida Kahlo’s or Diego Rivera’s work. The gore in some of the images reminds me of the ribbons and dissections seen in Kahlo’s pieces. It is unsettling, but so beyond surreal that it becomes absurd.

Which is why they are still being produced to this day through this gallery.

One or two of the older artists have passed, but the proceeds are said to go to their families. And I hope it does, this is the type of art that is ideal for patronage. Give the masses what we want and allow the paintings to live and produce beyond their lifespan.

The small space that it was in was at capacity with so many lining up behind us to get a chance to buy. As the last stop of the tour, this was a (five to members of the Austin Film Society I believe) four hour time slot where you could buy in person from the gallery instead of the website. And people were buying. Even as we snatched up what we wanted for ourselves and our boys, I was overwhelmed by others doing the same. It was a claustrophobic frenzy.

But hey at least I blew my money on the things, right? We didn’t get everything we wanted, if we did I would be broke. But what we did get, I am excited for. I can’t wait to posses it, mount it, stare at it in silence, ignore it, take if for granted, let it catch my eye at the right moment and remind me of the night and how before this we had rewatched Basquiat and after this we walked to pick up dinner holding hands and talked about art and talked about stupid things and talked about nothing and slept the day off and woke up to a new one.