Friday, July 31, 2009, 7 - 9 pm
SOAP PLANT / WACKO / LA LUZ DE JESUS GALLERY
4633 Hollywood Blvd.,
Los Angeles CA 90027,
323-666-7667 Fax: 323-663-0243
www.soapplant.com
www.laluzdejesus.com
“Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes” is renowned tattoo artist Jonathan Shaw’s first leap into the world of shock literature. Set in the hot urban sprawl of Rio de Janeiro, Shaw’s story follows the twisted love affair between a middle-aged gypsy and the beautifully manipulative and insane young prostitute, Narcisa, with hilarious, poignant and often tragic detail. Recounted in three years of diary entries, Shaw’s character navigates the teeming slums and lice-infested flop houses of Rio and stumbles along a secret passage to enlightenment at the hands of a gyrating Buddhist Dakini. Through this darkly hilarious litany of doomed love, drug addiction, compulsive sex and mutual enslavement, Shaw proves that it is possible to follow your heart and never once be degraded by self pity. Based on a true story, “Narcisa” is bound to be an underground classic.
“Finally, after twenty-plus years of coaxing, cajoling, pleading and basic needling on my part, my ol’scallywag brother, Jonathan Shaw has put his pen to paper, dragging and drudging up virulent and violent hallucinations from his not so cute brain-scape. Been waiting too long for this. So have you, whoever you are, believe me. If you don’t yet know him, you will. If you didn’t want to, too bad. Once he’s in, he’s in. J.S.’s words, work, life, lives, deaths, rants, rage, hilarity and taste rank with the best of ‘em. If Hubert Selby Jr., Charles Bukowski, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Neil Cassady, Dr. Hunter S.Thompson, the Marquis de Sade, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Edward Teach, Charley Parker, Iggy Pop, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, R. Crumb, Robert Williams, Joe Coleman, Dashiell Hammett, E.M. Cioran and all of the Three Stooges had all been involved in some greasy, shameful, evil whorehouse orgy, Jonathan Shaw would surely be its diabolical, reprobate spawn.“ Johnny Depp
“Jonathan Shaw’s “Narcisa” is one hell of a wild ride through the bizarre netherworld of his own damaged consciousness. His experiences are real and his language and insights kinetic and brutal. It is what the French would call “littérature maudit”, and Shaw’s writing certifies him as a subversive and criminal inhabitant of the world of human expression.” Jim Jarmusch
“Jonathan Shaw is the great nightmare anti-hero of the new age.” Iggy Pop
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For Press inquiries, please contact Alessandra DeBenedetti for Scabvendor, 646.541.9234
scabvendor@gmail.com, www.scabvendor.com. Visit www.heartwormpress.com
La Luz de Jesus is located at the Soap Plant/Wacko building, in Los Feliz at 4633 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027. Gallery hours are Monday – Wednesday: 11am – 7pm, Thursday – Saturday: 11am – 9pm and Sunday 12-6pm
