Amazon.com
Artists often invoke a past that never existed, but this offbeat documentary focuses on a pair of artists who don't merely create a fictitious past but try to live in it. David McDermott and Peter McGough, a gay couple living in New York's East Village, choose to wear the fashions of a hundred years ago, and their anachronistic flourishes are an embodiment of their art. Their paintings generally resemble illustrations from the early years of the 20th century, but with a markedly gay theme. And as one of them says on camera, "We create our own homoerotic past." Visits to their urban home show them shaving with antique razors and living without electricity, although they claim they are not using their forays into the past as a gimmick to attract attention. Art critics and a staff member of the Whitney Museum appear on camera to discuss the art of McDermott and McGough, and while the verbiage may slide perilously close to oblique "artspeak," some cogent points are made. Even neighbors in the East Village appear on camera to talk about their neighbors who stroll about in top hats and stiff collars. This is an entertaining, thoughtful, and beautifully photographed film about artists whose steps backward in time make them stand out in the world of modern art.
--Robert J. McNamara
