9/29/2023/FRIDAY/2:16AM
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| RICK CASTRO FOREVER~ presented by Hollywood Forever~ |
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| RICK CASTRO FOREVER~ presented by Hollywood Forever~ |
RICK CASTRO FOREVER: Photographic Retrospective of Life & Death
A photographic collection presented at the historic Hollywood Columbarium curated by Rick Castro and Tyler Cassity reflecting themes of love, melancholy, meditation and remembrance with inclusions of masks images as an offering for Dia de Los Muertos. Featuring images from 1986 through 2022.
As a third generation Los Angeleno, I’ve always had an affinity with Hollywood Forever.
I was a precocious teen who sometimes played hooky to spend the day exploring Hollywood, eventually ending up at what was then still called the Hollywood Cemetery. During the 1970s, it was in a state of disrepair but this only enhanced the gothic atmosphere to which I was drawn.
As a young gay man in the 1980s, I found myself attending more funerals than my parents. The first plague, AIDS, took numerous friends, including the love of my life, Joey Napierkowski. Death was all around me.
I was forced to become a goth.
Now, to me, cemeteries represent not sorrow, but celebration. The effect is one of calming acceptance of continuum. After spending a lengthy amount of time in Europe, I was pleased to find the purpose of cemeteries there more aligned to my beliefs. They serve as public parks where people are welcome to
relax and spend time on a daily basis. Not only for those visiting loved ones,
but for anyone looking for serenity in an urban jungle.
With this in mind I’ve chosen my favorite location, the historic Columbarium, to display this collection of photographs. It is the eternal resting place for two queer Los Angeles legends, Rozz Williams (November 6, 1963 – April 1, 1998), cited as a pioneer of the American gothic rock, and Tomata du Plenty (May 28, 1948 – August 21, 2000), founder of the seminal punk band The Screamers. It is also houses the niches of Hollywood legends “Oomph” girl Ann Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) and the original Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln (February 6, 1889 – June 27, 1952).
In this collection, I have included intimate photographs of loved ones including family, lovers, friends and pets, along with portraits created for L.A. legends like Gore Vidal and eternal residents of Hollywood Forever, Holly Woodlawn and the Goddess Bunny. There are two sections dedicated to the celebration
of Dia De Los Muertos, and other niches include small vintage photos of Hollywood Forever, circa 1990. Also look for a portrait of Shy Tyler, circa 2002.
To complete the collection, I’ve included large scale images of Egyptian death masks in accordance of this years theme of máscaras.
As an elder gay man, I place no restrictions on presenting myself. Art, love, and sex are equal forms of enlightenment. Life is all about death.
Death is all about life.
The historic Columbarium brings me so much joy, it will be my resting niche~ forever.
Rick Castro~ September 2023
Lifetime Los Angeleno Rick Castro is known for his distinctive photography, which has gained him recognition since the 1980s for his avant garde style and unique presentation of the LGBTQ community. Castro’s photography has been exhibited at Rick Owens: Inhuman, Subhuman, Superhuman, Triennale Di Milano, Queer Communion: Ron Athey, Participant Gallery, NYC and ICA Los Angeles. This year Castro’s photography was included in Collective Memory Installation at Grand Park, Los Angeles, and Queering The Lens, Getty Center, Los Angeles. His photographic editorials have been used by Christian Dior Homme, Cartier, and Rick Owens.
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When Rick Castro approached me about staging this exhibit in the Columbarium, I told him we had a tradition of adopting less visited, older spaces for extended exhibitions into our annual Dia de los Muertos event — including many exhibits in the adjacent ABC Mausoleum. We’d already selected our theme for this year —
our 24th annual celebration: The Masks of Mexico: Life and Death in the Mask. Also, we’d partnered with the Museo Raphael Coronel (famed for their mask collections) in Zacatecas, Mexico - and the home of our event’s founders, the Marquez family.
Rick said he had many photographs of masks, identity, and death — and defining portraits of Trans icons buried at Hollywood Forever - Goddess Bunny and Holly Woodlawn. Also in passing, he mentioned that his maternal grandmother and extended family were from Zacatecas. I knew then that RICK CASTRO FOREVER was meant to be our extended exhibition this year.
On October 28th, we celebrate Dia de los Muertos and pay tribute to Zacatecas - the home of our founder, Deisy Marquez, and the source of our exhibitions and inspirations celebrating masks.
From October 5 to November 30th, we will welcome a retrospective of Rick Castro’s work- Latino Queer son of Zacatecas three generations removed.
In 1996, I first saw Hollywood Cemetery through Rick’s eyes as
I watched his film Hustler White at a Gay Film Festival in St. Louis - featuring the lives of the hustlers and sex workers that worked along Santa Monica Boulevard on a cruising strip that began at the cemetery — with some of the scenes occurring on the grounds. Two years later, I entered these grounds — unkept, bankrupt, flooded by El Niño - with a sense of déjà vu and homecoming. Soon after I bought the cemetery, I encountered Rick and realized that I had first scene my new home through his Queer lens.
Rick has been a thru-line ever since here. His frequent visits for photography shoots, funerals of friends, as well as my visits to his art gallery, Antebellum Hollywood. Even our yoga classes (now daily) were first suggested by Rick in 2009.
Over those years. I’ve admired Rick’s fearless, Queer, punk, passion filled perspective. Now, I also realize Rick captured an art and an aesthetic that came to be when HIV was killing many of us. We were left with no choice but to come out of the closet, into the streets, and force ourselves to not only be … but also saved. That life and death struggle for visibility and expression forged a fearless art form for those dying and for those who survived.
I hear a whisper of that now historic era when I see this exhibition and it makes me proud. It fighting to be seen — we also won the right to have others see our worlds, our visions, our art. Rick is a passionate survivor, able to capture and freeze in time a rare beauty that embraces sensuality, melancholy, brutality, and loss — as it transcends death to find eternity in his appreciative gaze.
I am proud to welcome RICK CASTRO FOREVER home to the Columbarium, a building Rick loved and celebrated long before I ever came on the scene, and a building where he will rest forever if his time comes. We share this LGBTQ exhibition with you in our tradition of open heartedly welcoming, honoring, and enabling all faiths, traditions, beliefs, and identities that come to us to be celebrated, honored, and remembered.
Tyler Cassity, Founder, President, and Co-Owner Hollywood Forever
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| RICK CASTRO FOREVER~ presented by Hollywood Forever~ |
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| CASTRO: book~ info~ |
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| rick castro: melancholy of a witch~ 1992~ |
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| rick castro: beat hotel~ 2002~ |
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| rick castro: S/M Blvd~ photographs of hunters and remembrances 1986~1999~ |
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