Simon Rodia of Venice
By Pano
Douvos
We should now grant posthumously
an honorary Venice citizenship to sculptor Simon Rodia if the recently shown
film documentary is a yardstick.
The eloquent biography by independent film
makers Brad Byers and Edward Landler is a complete depiction of the artistic and
personal life of the artist.
The
monument to the creative genius of Rodia remains the three soaring Watts Towers
in South Los Angeles. The film makers’ old black and white, and later,
color film captured Rodia's inspired use of form and color in his personal
spiritual statement. Art books have made good records of his towers. But the
presentation of his unassisted creation with its immediacy and
third-dimentionality of the film is an eye
opener.
One particularly remarkable
instance of the immediacy of the photography is the up close and magical view of
the mosaic covered towers offered by the camera crane as it climbs. The
perspective obtained is that of a horizontal bird’s eye view – 40,
50 and 60 feet off the ground.
Amazing!
The film makers ended up with
a brilliant “film mosaic,” emulating the process Rodia followed
using humble materials such as ceramic pots, plates and colored bottles. He used
mortar of his own design to solidify the iron bars and copper wire wrapped
armator.
Rodia spoke for himself in
broken English in the documentary but was very clear in presenting his ideas.
His aim, he explained to questioners, was to produce a “good good”
or a personal expression we might say... A special original creation. An art
piece.
The documentary shows movie
recordings of the city’s required safety tests on his towers. They were
immovable – as the stress equipment and truck were lifted off the ground.
Buckminster Fuller, of Geodesic Dome fame was shown speaking of the strength of
the towers, saying it was due to Rodia’s native intelligence and his
awareness that a triangle shape is the strongest architectural configuration.
Fuller was quoted as observing that “Rodia will be remembered as one of
the greatest 20th century
sculptors.”
Rodia cut quite a
figure clambering over his towers, scrambling ever higher carrying buckets of
mortar. He was short in stature but stout of heart, as we say. He was a
charismatic guy, marching to his own drum...speaking forthright of his
humanistic views.
The documentary was
an open appraisal, including views from his nay-sayers, who spoke of his poor
parenting and his drinking period. His uniqueness as an artist and as a
personality shines through.
Byers and Landler
advised film goers at the Sponto Gallery showing that DVD copies of the
documentary can be obtained in October by googling up Simon Rodia. They
concluded by saying that funding aid would be helpful.
Posted: Thu - September 1, 2005 at 04:06 AM