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- Shinji Horizakura, the Japanese tebori master, at work on another “canvas.”
BY CLAYTON PATTERSON | The economy in Austria seems to be doing well. The Wildstyle and Tattoo Messe in Salzburg, like Vienna, had capacity crowds and people were spending money.
Salzburg is a beautiful city whose most famous son is the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and is also recognized as setting where the von Trapp family saga played out in “The Sound of Music” Broadway production and American movie.
My booth partner, fellow New York photographer and world traveler Steve Bonge, before the opening of the Saturday did some sightseeing. Steve has an extraordinary collection of photos of various cemeteries around the globe. He came back with an incredible photo of Mozart’s mother’s grave.
A part of my job for Wildstyle is finding inspiring talent to enhance the show’s quality and public interest. Jochen Auser, the show’s originator and owner, is pleased that I was able to get Shinji Horizakura, the well respected artist of tebori, the traditional Japanese tattoo method.
Since Wildstyle cross-pollinates so many different cultures, the event attracts the whole cross-section of society.
Tom and Domino Blue — creators, directors and winners of many prestigious awards for original material connected to the stage — produced a visual masterpiece for Wildstyle, using a styled-out drum corps, whose beats arrangements were breathtaking. The corps played precision beats accompanied with directed lights and sounds. The acrobats the Blues brought brought and the accompanying music was all a visual and sonic adventure I had never been on before. Domino’s original score, her singing, the drums, the background fi lm, coalesce to beautiful effect behind Scotland’s Pain Freak.
Jochen Auser once again pulled the rabbit out of the hat and created an amazing show. Everything about and around the show worked, and nothing could have been better. It was as perfect as perfect can ever be in a non-perfect world.
