The Art of More

OK, I finally saw something contemporary. Very contemporary. In fact, it’s so new there is footage shot in Feb. 2008.
Anything L.A.-related catches my attention so I was naturally drawn to Harry Kim’s documentary, “Dirty Hands: The Life and Crimes of David Choe.” The locally-raised Korean American artist is a fascinating character, talented and charismatic but equally self-destructive and prone to pushing the boundaries of excess in both his life and his work.
Kim began shooting his enigmatic friend in 2000 when he was poor and living downtown, shoplifting his meals from a market in Little Tokyo. Choe is a larger-than-life figure whose thirst for adventure takes him to the Congo and Japan (where he lands in jail for three months). Originally a risk-taking graffiti artist, he evolved into an edgy magazine illustrator, provocateur and painter who sold out a $2.5 million dollar show in London.
There’s an intimate, confessional quality to the film that lays bare the psychosexual nature of much of Choe’s work. His life is such an ever-evolving drama and high-wire act you spend a great deal of time wondering if he will survive in the end.