Murals 10/26/89 Sandra Describes Mural RL #2

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This mural really inspires me because of the message that it has across, having to do with the needle, having to do with death, and I say that it has a lot to do with the type of work that I have now, because my work really has to do with the message trying to put across to the teenagers.

Sandra describes the mural, October 26, 1989, take six.

This mural really inspires me because of the message that it has, and the message having to do with the drugs, which is really powerful, because most of my work that I would do had to do with drugs or having to do with trying to tell the teenagers not to do this, not to do that, and it's really important to me.

Well, first of all, I see a man who has taken drugs or a person who has taken drugs, and that's what the needle is about, and he's laying down as if he's dying.

But if you look at the far side by the feet, it looks realistic, and it's a man, and suddenly he starts deteriorating, and his stomach starts deteriorating.

You can see the insides, and towards the top part you can see the rib cage of the skeleton.

As you look at the face, it's trying to turn into a skeleton, although the artist never finished it.

It starts to turn into a skull, so you can see how he's lying down and he starts to die, and you can see that part, which is really important.

Are there things about it that inspired your technique? I'd have to say just the way he did it completely, the entire technique.

The colors, the strokes are really hard and vicious, and when I look at it, I get this strong feeling inside of me.

It just gives me a feeling, and I just feel like if I want to paint like this, most of my work started turning out to be this type of stroke and this type of color all the time.

Can you put out some details that you think are interesting on the mural? I would say the face especially.

I like that part a lot.

I would say too, the way if you look at the mural from a certain angle, it looks like if he's lying down, but when you go to the other side of the mural, it looks as if his feet were really huge, and then you could see him and he just goes off in the distance, which is really nice.

I also like the inside of the stomach, the rib cage.

It's wonderful.

The way he plays with the colors, the way he plays with imagery is great.

He takes advantage of the length of the wall.

He just takes advantage of it and shows us what he can do with it and also puts a message across to us.

How did you ever find this mural in person? I was wandering around, actually.

I was just walking around, and I was looking at murals that day.

I had spoken to the artist who did this, and he told me that he had a mural around here.

So I walked around, and I didn't know this was his.

I saw this, it inspired me, it was incredible, and suddenly when I spoke to him, I told him about this mural, and it ended up being his, because I didn't know exactly where it was at.

I just stumbled across it one day.

How do you think it would affect young people going by when they see this? What is it that people would do for it? Well, normally when you look at a mural, you don't think that that's what it's for.

You don't think that it's to show a person what you feel, your inner self, or to make a statement or something like that.

But if a person walks by here, they immediately see him lying down.

They see the needle, and they see the connection between it, the needle, the skull, and the connection is just there.

So when I walked by, I'd say my friends would walk by and they'd say something about it too.

How do you think it expresses the feelings of someone who maybe has taken drugs? The energy inside of it.

It looks as if he's suffering.

As if something was going on inside his body he couldn't control.

Everything was out of control.

It's basically what you see.

And even the background, you can't look at it all.

You have to look at the background too.

And the background is pretty strong.

It just has lines, shapes going everywhere, and it's pretty strong.

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Identifier

F.2021-10-0018

Date Of Production

October 26 1989

Abstract

Sync sound footage of high school artist Sandra Antongiorgi talking about how a Héctor Duarte mural with an anti-drug message inspires her, followed by silent footage of surrounding artwork, including the mural painted on Casa Aztlan in Pilsen.

This footage was shot for an unfinished documentary about the visual language of murals in Chicago's Hispanic communities.

Format

16mm

Color

Color

Sound

Silent

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Notes

The digital representation attached to this record consists of a 16mm negative picture element (F.2021-10-0018) synced with portions of a separate ¼" magnetic audio reel (Dobinsky 093).

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Negatives

Genre

Documentary

Subject

Art
Street art
Hispanic Americans

Related Collections

Susan Dobinsky Collection

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago ➜ Lower West Side

Main Credits

Dobinsky, Susan (is co-producer)

Dobinsky, Susan (is filmmaker)

Bayly, Ronn (is co-producer)

Regele, Susan (is co-producer)

Kurtz, Julia (is co-producer)

Participants And Performers

Antongiorgi, Sandra (is participant)

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