Forever & Today, Inc. presents What To Do With A Drunken Sailor? by New York-based artist Jack Early. The exhibition features a short film, newly commissioned by Forever & Today, Inc., that is a narrative relating to a personal journey–both literal and figurative–experienced by Early. The work created for this project represents an important moment as Early forges new creative territory.

In What To Do With A Drunken Sailor?, 2011, a sailor disembarks from a ship to relate his tale in song. Written and performed by Early, this improbably optimistic tune, “It Don’t Rain in Beverly Hills,” reflects his desire to reclaim innocence lost by an industry built on manufacturing images an allegory as fitting for Hollywood as for the New York art world.

Shot on location in New York, Early’s four-minute film recalls the concept musical film shorts of legendary solo artists such as Lee Hazelwood or Serge Gainsbourg. For Early’s singing performance of “It Don’t Rain in Beverly Hills,” he appears under dramatic lighting, with his last name “EARLY” in the background. This conjures an aesthetic from 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s-era “music videos” of hit songs by big acts filmed on-set for BBC programs like The Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops, or late-night American musical variety shows such as The Midnight Special.

Early’s practice reflects diverse media, including sculpture, performance, film, music, and painting. He collaborated with New York artist Rob Pruitt during the ‘80s and early ‘90s to create instantly recognizable and often humorous work as Pruitt-Early. To pursue the subjectivity of the single artist’s viewpoint, Early diverged to focus on solo music, performance, and theater works. In his ten-year self-imposed absence from the art world, writing songs, and listening to music have been his primary inspiration.

Writing music led to his recent reemergence with renewed vitality as an artist, as witnessed by his psychedelic day-glow Victrola record player installation, Jack Early’s Ear Candy Machine, 2009, featuring a Pink Floyd-meets-Yoko Ono aesthetic. He has also exhibited small-press editions of colored vinyl records and CD box sets with his own music, multi-media assemblage paintings, and cut-out life-size figure sculptures of pop musicians and TV/film icons, among other recent works.

Of all the songs written by Early, “It Don’t Rain in Beverly Hills” is unique in that it has taken on a life of its own. Released in conjunction with The Andy Warhol Museum, musicians Dean & Britta were commissioned for a version that is included on 13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol Screen Tests as a soundtrack to Edie Sedgwick’s screen test. It has also received significant airplay and been featured in a major TV show.

FOREVER & TODAY, INC., a non-profit founded in 2008 that is a sponsored organization of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), a 501©(3), curates and commissions projects in collaboration with a single artist, collective, or collaborative entity. The organization extends unique opportunities for artists to create new work and engage diverse audiences through exhibitions, site-specific installations, performances, publications, and educational and public programs. www.foreverandtoday.org

SPECIAL THANKS to Amelia Abdullahsani, Richard Agerbeek, James Bell, Geoff Bentz, Lewis Chu, Jeff Clark, Brad Clymer, Ken Habarta, Louky and Bart Keijsers Koning, Nick Kramer, Nikita Liamzine, An Pham, James Pham, Andy Plovnick, Sara Shaw, Jasmin Sian, Somsack Sikhounmuong, Jasper Sebastian Stürup, Stewart Thorndike, Ken Yip, and O Zhang.