There is also an eight-minute clip that Birk and art director Elyse Pingnolet are developing into a full-length film. Both venues feature a short film by Christian Anthony that, assembled from feature movie clips, wittily delves into popular notions of God and the devil, heaven and hell and who’s inhabiting either. Organized by the San Jose Museum of Art, the exhibition is composed of a smaller selection of works and divided between the Main Gallery at Cal State Fullerton (Purgatory and Paradise) and Santa Ana’s Grand Central Art Center (Inferno).
In collaboration with journalist Marcus Sanders, Birk has also adapted Dante’s translated words into vernacular English. This compelling, painted scenario is one of roughly 100 paintings, drawings, text and film created by California artist Sandow Birk, who has used Dante’s epic masterpiece “The Divine Comedy” and its description of the Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise as a narrative template.
Visibly ambivalent, they are staring down into a valley that looks like Los Angeles in traffic gridlock on one side and a flame-engulfed pit on the other. The unlikely pair represents a (live) modern version of 14th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri and the spirit of ancient Roman poet Virgil as they are beginning their journey through hell.
The figure beside him, on the other hand, is long-haired, bearded and draped with an American flag toga. The young man is wearing the young urbanite’s uniform – baggy jeans, a hoodie and sneakers.
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