One of my all time favorite books is Herbert Asbury's The Barbary Coast: it's full of crime, violence, politics, sex and gambling and genderfuckery in the mud of San Francisco's birth -- not to mention brothels of *all* kinds, running Mormons out of town (think this was the first time with Prop 8?) and Hearst. Right now in the 'upper playground' or Lower Haight or the Hate'stro or the Staight-ho -- whatever you call it, a gallery called FIFTY24SF is featuring the stunning artwork of Jeremy Fish and Miss Van. Jeremy Fish in "Ghosts of the Barbary Coast".
Juxtapoz pre-blogged it, then went to the opening (images via). Because they are art whores. And we love them. They say,
Through his research, Fish found that SF is a city "built on an adventurous pioneer spirit, which you can still see traces of in contemporary San Francisco. It's that magnetism this city has to that adventurous personality that I am building on." Through his pieces, Fish resurrects the San Francisco of the past, a time when "young men and women were finding millions in gold, just as fast as they lost it at the gambling table, or to a thief."
Jeremy takes us to bars of the past such as "The Fierce Grizzly" (that actually featured a live female bear chained to the wall), or "The Boars Head" (where a woman performed sexual acts with a pig). The San Francisco that Jeremy Fish explores is one with 24-hour pharmacies selling single-dose intoxicants to patrons of The Coast at all hours. This was certainly not the norm in the U.S. in 1850, but "this was the dawn of the west coast."
It is Fish and Van's "love letter" to the Barbary Coast days and over 35 pieces are on display -- images in this post are by Miss Van (top) and Fish (above). The show is from December 4-30, Tuesday-Sunday from 12-6 PM, and by appointment at 252 & 248 Fillmore Street.
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