Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: GUGGI [Tribeca Film Festival - New York, New York]
The perspective of "Guggi" [Spotlight Documentary] is of an artist born out of a specific background with friends in a very specific part of Ireland. He found a sense of context for what he saw growing up and yet making it his own. Guggi grew up with Bono on the same street but it is interesting how certain ideas can permeate life growing up and translate into art. The film is about culture and smartly and definitely keeps clear of politics, particularly at that time in Ireland. It is a story of family and how different ideas factored into how they grew up. Guggi is the focus with Bono and Gavin Friday who was in a punk band with Guggi back in the early 80s. They formed a trinity that showed their working class roots (even as Bono went into the stratiosphere with U2 (though that is not mentioned). Guggi's art is reflective of that working class though in many ways. His art is minimal and abstract in that context with layers adding to sense of what they might be.
The intriguing spark points comes from bowls that were in Guggi's house as a boy with numbers on them which points back to Russia and the Second World War. They are physical pieces and yet with a sense of the ethereal because they use numbers Guggi never quite got the correlation for. In later works, Guggi used Russian lettering not know their meaning but because they looked powerful and telling. A couple years before this doc was made he had aneurysm (which happened seemingly around COVID) so that might have adjusted his perspective on the notion of self. He is still joking around with Gavin and Bono but seems inherent focused to tell his story for psoterity. The beauty is that the others don’t overshadow. It is just abouut being and giving him his time. That is true friendship. As the art evolves, it seems later as if something wants to break out of the paintings in his use of latyers. Guggi's latest gallery showing combines physical bowls almost like porcelain eggs cracked open. It is an interesting motif but Guggi himself is just who he is: an old punk rocker that grew older but found a way to channel a certain visual language that is his own. B
By Tim Wassberg
