Dithers

San Francisco’s Upper Playground’s Dithers is a rarity in today’s DVD boom as well as a showcase for the arts. Spread across two discs are 30 entertaining featurettes on some of today’s most exciting visual artists. While most, like the established Shepard Fairey and Dave Kinsey, come from graffiti backgrounds, there is a non-repetitive array of styles and points of view, from wheat-pasting, to brush, to spray can and beyond. The modern folk-art, freeform and fine-point illustration of the less familiar Bigfoot, Dave Choe and Giant have styles and personalities that seem to hop off the screen and enter into your creative drive. The only downside is the second disc, on which Beastie Boy photographer Ricky Powell does studio interviews. While his reverence for graffiti legends Seen and Team is justified, his blatant lack of interest in newer artists Dalek and Jest seems to negate the whole point of profiling art’s next generation. Nonetheless, after such a strong debut, one hopes that Upper Playground has a second installment planned.