#surrealcomedy – Heather’s blog

A further development of the wig using more wadding that I found in a fruit and veg box.Added knitting needles, found cables, photos of things of class I believed the character of the wig would like.After my one to one with the artist Erica Eyre we discussed the further progression of perhaps the wigs character and taking the act in more of a surreal direction. I played about using stop motion with mouths/noses/buses etc and added voices i believed that wig would talk in to the speed of the stop motion. Characters that i believed would be very superficial.

I plan with the video’s with the rotating mouths to put some superficial chit-chat over the top of them trying both an american and an English accent.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWf0oPn0zYj0schF3NbmHTUEPsT3LEqz/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIoSjFnr2ziNdpVeOw87j2BYRoCB3el/view?usp=sharing

This video i think lays the foundations of the surreal path that the wig follows and having a life force of it’s own.

I wanted to take a close look at some of Grandma’s peculiar tastes. What does she get up to in her spare time? Erica had mentioned looking at why she hates Louis so much and recreating the scene that happened between these two on the bus but I feel that what makes the character so surreal and funny is the fact that the audience don’t know why she has such a particular hate towards Louis. So I feel that this part is best left as a mystery for the audience.

She had also mentioned that I should perhaps reconsider the use of the crutches in case it offends. I have worked with people with disabilities for 12 years and crutches aren’t used for long term disabilities. What I find particularly interesting about the woman that does use them is she seems to use them in place of walking sticks.

An artist mentioned to me by Erica of particular interest was Shanna Moulton. I like the fact that the character she portrays in whispering pines is in fact her alter ego; and is drawn from the hypochondriac traits that she often displays. I like the very surreal turn that events often seem to take.

Ryan Trecartin

His characters seem to be very superficial and I think would be good inspiration for the character of the wig.Sometimes the filming can be really dis-orientating which i quite like and there is a lot of repetition and a lot of use of body movement in order to take a microscopic look at character.His characters remind me some of some of the Australians comedians Chris Lilley’s characters in ‘Summer heights high’

Mike Sherry I really like some of Mike Sherry’s assemblages especially the textural elements and how they are collated together.I also like the children’s toys he has created which have a sinister feel behind them. It made me think of the old lady’s wig and how it had a soft playful element to it with the texture but in the video’s where it moves it becomes sinister.

https://images.app.goo.gl/YUmiNEmtYVB6jSzd9

https://images.app.goo.gl/13G8GwnBV4kjg3bz8

Bibliography

Mike Kelly. (2014). Art jouet,les arts,art sculpture. Available: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9e/2e/a4/9e2ea40dc4d76a4891197fc39ed4f163.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/328059154102777182/&tbnid=xzs6k_wPpg6mqM&vet=1&. Last accessed 15th Nov 2020

Moulton Shana. (2004). Whispering pines 3. Available: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=whispering+pines+shana+moulton. Last accessed 15th Nov 2020.

Ryan Trecartin. (2013). Center Jenny. Available: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=center+jenny+ryan+trecartin. Last accessed 22 November 2020.

Youtube. (2013). Mike Kelly by Stedelijk. Available: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bgcSt-5UIuw/maxresdefault.jpg&imgrefurl=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v%3DbgcSt-5UIuw&tbnid=3uo6elwcWXPg_M&vet=1&docid=rvmuYS7jDbYizM&w=1280&h. Last accessed 15th Nov 2020