Kevin Bacon and the BBQ volcano
I’ve noticed a running theme on postcard messages; the weather.
But I am interested in the senders, and in particular want to begin weaving my own narrative into the story. A postcard from Lanzarote in 1992 from Kevin and Tina mentioned a ‘barbeque cooked by the heat of a volcano’. So droll.
I like playing along with the idea that it could have been postcard from Kevin Bacon (Footloose). I’ve begun to make a few images incorporating the wood chip wallpaper but actually I want to steer away from illustration. Right now I’m undecided as to whether it should feature at all.
The line of enquiry into ‘lies’ is perhaps merging into one of popular mythology, particularly in the case of the Kevin Bacon game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon
Lies, Lies, Lies
Mythomania: an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating
or/ pseudologica fantastica
I watched Pamela Meyer’s talk on TED: ‘How to spot a liar’ – http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/pamela_meyer_how_to_spot_a_liar.html
which led me to considering documenting a conversation as a transcript, and including body language and other lie leakage in brackets for instance.
Michael Shermer’s TED talk: ‘the pattern behind self deception’,
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/michael_shermer_the_pattern_behind_self_deception.htmlI
discussed the patterns behind self deception and showed images used by Susan Blackmore’s ESP tests, whereby scrambled images are perceived by the viewer to contain a picture of something. More so if an outline is included. I’ve begun this line of enquirey by abstracting a photo to the point of remoteness. Perhaps it is worthy to look at how something can be reproduced and twisted to an end point.
I came to the realisation that alot of my recent work falls under the theme of lies: deception, untruths and falsehood. I could have a body of work so to speak.
I also found that every year in a country pub in Cumbria, a competition is staged to find the World’s Biggest Liar. http://www.santonbridgeinn.com/liar/
So lying can be a performative act and even woven into local culture.
I had been short on finding base material but rediscovered a pack of handwritten postcards boughts from a charity shop years ago. I’m looking forward to reading through them again to see what I can find.
I’ve also been working on the concept of reducing objects back to the sum of their parts: namely, to begin with, one of those horrible crying dolls, a kid’s woolly hat and a cassette tape.
I kind of wish that I was one of those clever people that could take something apart and then put it back together again. But I’m not! Such is life.
It’s a little macabre, sure (the objects were bought at random from a charity shop and the dump). In a way it’s looking at what these objects really are… the doll is stuffing, wires and circuit boards.
Would it be pointless to put them back together again?
Continuing an investigation into lies and mythomania, I’ve begun writing snippets of overheard conversations directly onto wood chip wallpaper.
Documenting actual real life conversations has always intrigued me, but even more so, are the lies uttered by others. But I want to write lies about lies.
wood chip investigations
I took the wood chip down off the wall and traced out the folds, mapping out the lines that formed an encasing around the dead de-bobbler.
This photo shows the traced mapping laid over the de-bobbler.
I’m not sure what to make of it all just yet.
Anyhow, I have another line of enquiry which looks towards a tenuous connection between the wood chip ordinarilly being used to cover damaged walls, a deception of sorts and that of telling lies; mythomania.
