Charlie Ahearn

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Charlie Ahearn
Born1951[1]
NationalityAmerican
Known forFilm, Painting
Spouse(s)Jane Dickson

Charlie Ahearn (born 1951) is an American film maker[1] and creative cultural artist living in New York City. Although predominantly involved in film and video production, he is also known for his work as an author, freelance writer, member of Colab, and radio host. He is married to the painter Jane Dickson.

Life and work[]

Charlie Ahearn came to New York City in 1973 to attend the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program (Studio Program). Later he was joined by his twin brother, John Ahearn, and they became part of the artists' group Colab - short for Collaborative Projects - which was a group determined to go beyond the traditional art world and galleries, and find a way to "be creative in a larger sense".[2]:146​

For several years during the 1970s Ahearn, then living in downtown Manhattan, concentrated on making 16-millimetre art films. In 1977 he went to the Alfred E. Smith Projects in the Lower East Side to film local youths practice martial arts with his Super 8 camera, which exposed him to hip-hop.[3]

At this point, Ahearn was approached by some of these local youths who wanted to make a martial arts film, and Ahearn agreed despite never having attended film school and not knowing how to make a feature-length film. Being inspired by some of his favourite kung fu films such as 36 Chambers, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, and Five Deadly Venoms - as well as the films of Bruce Lee.[4]

Ahearn showed the film in an abandoned massage parlour that Colab had taken over on the corner of 7th Avenue and 41st Street in the then rather shady Times Square area (where Ahearn also lived on 43rd Street and 8th Avenue, from 1981 to 1993).[5] CoLab's art show - titled The Times Square Show - had a strong street orientation and included all kinds of street art (including graffiti). The show introduced artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf and Keith Haring.[2]

Wild Style[]

In the summer of 1980 Ahearn began working with Braithwaite and Quiñones on what was later to be a classic hip-hop feature-length film by the name of Wild Style, taking its name from the graffiti-painting style of the same name: a style that is very symbolically described as an "energetic interlocking construction of letters with arrows and others that signify movement and direction".[6] Ahearn wrote, directed and produced the film, wanting to go beyond fiction and documentaries and make a film that showed real people doing real things, as well as portraying the visual explosion seen in New York at the time in the shape of graffiti that fascinated Ahearn so much[4] Additionally, in light of his creative and natural activist approach to art, Ahearn saw a chance to touch upon more general topics such as the classic conflict between art and commerce.[4]

Wild Style premièred in 1983 in Times Square, breaking records by selling out at all screenings in the three weeks it played.[7]

The highly successful soundtrack of the film, which was composed entirely from scratch to avoid rights clearances, was produced by Fred Braithwaite, in collaboration with Chris Stein of chart-topping rock act Blondie.[2] Grandmaster Theodore mixed the album and Grandmaster Caz wrote the lyrics.

Wild Style and its soundtrack have since been regarded as the most accurate portrait of hip-hop culture[2] and was even named as the definitive hip-hop film.[8] Its popularity quickly spread to even the furthest reaches of the world, as shown by the fact that Ahearn and a select group of around 30 actors and performers from the film and others that didn't appear such as DJ Afrika Islam, were invited to Japan in 1983 to promote both the film and the hip-hop culture in general.[3][self-published source?]

Ahearn transferred his Hip-Hop archive, including detailed "Wild Style" production notes, artwork, photographs, and audio and video recordings, to the Cornell University Hip Hop Collection in 2012.

Other projects and artworks[]

The title of the book was Yes Yes, Y'all, and it was published in 2002 by Da Capo Press as an oral history of the first decade of hip-hop with over 100 photos.[9]

Throughout his career, Ahearn has photographed alongside such famous photographers as Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper and Joe Conzo.[3][self-published source?]

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Wild Style, Ahearn also wrote Wild Style: The Sampler, published by Powerhouse Books in 2007, which was full of stories and photos concerning the journey of Wild Style from an independent film about an avant-garde movement to an icon in American culture.[3][self-published source?]

In 2005, Ahearn hosted a weekly talk-music internet radio show on New York's Museum of Modern Art's WPS1.org called Yes Yes, Y'all, with guests such as Biz Markie, Afrika Bambaataa, Rammellzee, Grandmaster Caz, and many more hip-hop icons from 1970 to 1990.[10]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Chang, Jeff (2008-07-31). Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-7867-2208-2.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Chang, Jeff (2007-04-01). Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4299-0269-4.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Ahearn, Charlie, Wild Style: The Sampler. Powerhouse Publishing, 2007
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Charlie Ahearn interview from WBAI99.5FM (http://www.hiphopmusic.com/2007/06/a_conversation_with_charlie_ah.html)
  5. ^ Charlie Ahearn interview by Kai Eric (http://www.brink.com/gallery/2319 Archived 2007-04-03 at the Wayback Machine)
  6. ^ Cooper, Martha & Chalfant, Henry, Subway Art/ Owl/Holt/Macmillan, 1988.
  7. ^ Cooper, Martha, The Hip-Hop Files. From Here To Fame Publishing, 2004
  8. ^ Emery, Andrew, The Book of Hip-Hop Cover Art. Octopus Publishing, 2004
  9. ^ Da Capo Books/Perseus Book Group Website (http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/features/yesyesyall/)
  10. ^ WPS1.org (http://www/wps1.org/include/shows/yes_yes_yall.html)

References[]

  • Carlo McCormick, The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984, Princeton University Press, 2006.

External links[]

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