Max Sudhues, Carousel (2006)

http://www.maxsudhues.de/luna_park_carousel.html

I came across Max Sudhues along my research travels recently and was completely struck by this work. Sudhues is a Berlin based artist and what I love the most about this particular work of his is it's simplicity. When one thinks carousels, we think of the over-the-top grandiose decoration and craftsmanship, lots of gold, lights, colour and music. This work strips all that away and creates a carousel as if straight from our childhood imagination, simply and effortlessly. It makes me think of a child who has come home after a day out on a carousel and wanting to recreate the experience with whatever materials are lying around the house.

The title of the work is Carousel and it was created in 2006. It is made of plastic toy animals, a fans front facing, a drinking glass and a record player. Projected onto the sculpture is a slide photograph of a sunset, creating an eerie shadow onto the wall. The animals turn backwards, confusing our natural inclination to see it going forwards.

I wish there was video documentation on-line somewhere of this work moving in the space, but I tried to find one to no avail. We are left to only imagine the carousel moving and turning, creating it's shadow onto the wall. Sudhues exhibited Carousel with another of his works, Luna Park. The images below are the two works together in the space. 

http://www.maxsudhues.de/luna_park_carousel.html

http://www.maxsudhues.de/luna_park_carousel.html

Where Carousel lacks colour, Sudhues has definitely added it to the accompanying video. "Strongly colored, sometimes wiggly and blurry, appearing to be almost dreamlike shots of a deserted, but noisy amusement park, with varicolored play toys, under palmtrees," Max Sudhues. Carousel's meaning is deepened with the addition of Luna Park. It acts as a metaphor for the mind of the person who created Carousel, a visual representation of what was going on whilst creating the work. It's as if the child who we imagine may have created Carousel after their day of experiencing a real one, is imagining freeing the animals into the wild whilst playing with his creation. The boundary of reality and fantasy is beautifully captured and complimented with the combination of these works

Experiencing this work with the sound element would definitely change ones perspective of the work, deepening it's experience for the viewer. Pity we can't.

You can check out more of Max Sudhues work here.

Horse race on a carousel?!?!?

I just came across this and thought it was too funny not to share! Enjoy!

"Improv Everywhere is a New York City-based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents." Here is a link to the people behind the prank.

Round And Round

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/round_and_round

Round And Round is a nostalgic documentary film created by UCLA students in 2009 about the eccentric characters behind the antique carousels, their personal experiences and it's rich history in California. These passionate lovers of the carousel all have strong emotional attachments that seems to stem from childhood. Lourinda Bray from Running Horses Studio features in the film and big boy Buster, who I love sooo much.

Scott Ringwelski has a very romantic and poetic way of speaking about the carousel. Below is a transcript of him describing how the carousel 'holds' our memories.

"We're shaped, we're molded by those people and interactions that we have in our lives. We hold onto those things, those memories and such and they mold and shape us. Wood, apparently is the same way. It holds sound vibrations in the fibres of the wood. And as a result, looking at a carousel, what the carousel actually is it's a repository of generations,  of all the hopes and the dreams and the laughter and the memories of all the people that have ever ridden it. So when you're on a carousel horse, yeah it seems like it has a personality. Well it does. It seems like it has maybe a heart and soul. It might. It has all the memories of all the people who have ever ridden it and you are contributing to it every time you ride one." Scott Ringwelski, Former Guardian, Historic Looff Carousel.

Click on the link below the picture above and give yourself a lovely 24 minute trip into the world of antique carousels within California. Enjoy!

Running Horses Studio

Once I committed to the theme of the carousel to influence my art practice,  I did a little research and came across an antique carousel restorers studio here in Los Angeles and simply wrote to them asking if I could volunteer once a week to learn techniques such as gold leaf gilding. It has been nearly two months since I first walked into Running Horses Studio in Irwindale and have not only been listening to some amazing facts and stories about the history of the carousel in America by an industry professional but getting my hands dirty with oil paint, gold leaf and sanding dust! Feels great to be getting dirty again! By the way, the studio is a two hour public transport ride, one way, from where I live in Los Angeles, but a 35 minute drive! Gotta love Los Angeles public transport system....NOT!

I wanted to share a visual of Running Horses Studio so you could see what the inside of a warehouse studio with nearly 400 carousel horses looks like. As you can imagine, it is out of this world! The first day I walked in, I nearly needed a slap to get over the awe of the place! 

Lourinda Bray owns Running Horses Studio, has been in the business for 30 or so years and really knows her stuff. She has her own personal collection of nearly 400 hundred horses here at the studio, including a complete carousel in storage. Crazy! She is the one sitting on the right while Caroline is sitting on the left, who has her own small collection of horses. She comes in to help out sometimes and has some wonderful stories to tell of working at carousels throughout her life.

Below are some random shots of the studio. I have taken hundreds of photos within the studio as every turn is a really great photo opportunity!

  

 

 

In future posts, I will share the techniques I have been taught at the studio. I'm really looking forward to hitting the studio on my return to Melbourne and get playing with gold leaf and oil paints!

Photos Friends Have Shared

I wanted to create a post of photos from friends who have begun to share their personal photos of carousels with me from their collection of jpg's. I am very interested in how people photograph/see carousels, so if you have a photo or two from your travel collection, send them through to me!

Photo Pip Heale, Paris, Sacre Coeur

Photo Pip Heale, Paris, Sacre Coeur

Photo Pip Heale, Paris, Sacre Coeur

Photo Pip Heale, Paris, Sacre Coeur

Photo Pip Heale, Paris, Sacre Coeur

Photo Pip Heale, Paris, Sacre Coeur

Photo Anett Schnider, France

Photo Gennady Revzin, New York

Photo Gennady Revzin, New York

Photo glo Hawa, Los Angeles

Gertrude Street Projection Festival

This little snippet was sent to me the day I started this blog by a friend back home in Melbourne, Australia who knew I was doing research on carousels but had not yet been told of my blog endeavor (thanks Sam for sharing!). It is documentation of a carousel projected onto a building that was part of The Gertrude Street Projection Festival which has been running annually for a few years with a different theme every year. This years theme was Hidden: Places And Spaces.  The artist who created the work is Olaf Meyer, a Melbourne based interactive multimedia installation artist.  You can see more of the projections from this years festival  here, which also features the carousel at the beginning.

misspenpen.blogspot.com

One of the many strange things in life that I love is when you are obsessed with something and then all of a sudden you see that thing everywhere! For example, when you are shopping for a new car. You find a model that you love and before you know it, it seems every single car driving by you is that exact same model and colour! This is happening with the carousel for me and now it's happening for my friends too! I've been sent links, photos, books to read and memories by my friends regarding the carousel. I love how almost everyone has some carousel story to share. Feel free to email me, or simply post below in the comments box if you want to bring my attention to your carousel encounter.

Nostalgia, Mad Men and Applications

What a great response I had yesterday launching my blog! Thank you all for the kind words of support on Facebook. I'm very excited about this blog and it seems that many of you are too. That's a very nice feeling indeed ;0) Please feel free to comment here instead of Facebook so conversations may be encouraged and make sure to fill out the box on the right to receive updated posts straight to your email inbox. And lastly, thanks to my friend Gennady Revzin who sent me two amazing photos, of which one I have used below.

Today I decided to write down what Don Draper said in that Mad Men episode I last posted, with the idea to ponder over the written word. Here is the transcript;

lenasbeat.wordpress.com

"Technology is a glittering lure. That said, there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash; if they have a sentimental bond with the product.

My first job; I was in-house at a fur company with this old pro copywriter; Greek, named Teddy. Now Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is ‘new’. Creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion.

He also talked about a deeper bond with the product. Nostalgia. It’s delicate...but potent.

Teddy told me that in Greek ‘nostaglia’ literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship. It’s a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel. It’s called the carousel.

Let’s just travel the way a child travels. Round and round and back home again, to a place where we know we’re loved."  Don Draper, Mad Men

Recently, I have been applying for all sorts of exhibition and grant opportunities using my research project on carousels as a source of inspiration for the projects I'm proposing. After transcribing this scene, I realised I had a very similar theme coming through my applications as to why I am focusing on the carousel. Here is some of what I have been writing lately;

Photo courtesy Gennady Revzin

"I am currently embarking on a yearlong research project to influence a new direction within my artistic practice by contemplating the craftsmanship, imagery, sounds and personal experience of the historic carousel. 

The image or idea of the carousel is surrounded by nostalgia and sends us straight back to childhood. The music, colours, lighting and general aesthetic is ingrained in our memories and gives us a sense of familiarity. The experience of the carousel is very much felt. We feel the wind against our cheeks, we see the blurring of the lights and colours as the carousel goes around and around and we are conscious of being looked upon by our parents, friends or passer-bys. In other words, we become part of the carousel experience.

It is this feeling of being gazed upon, the feeling of becoming a part of something outside of the body, surrounded by a childlike atmosphere that I aim to capture with these projects. By using and being inspired by the universal childhood imagery of the carousel, I hope to transport the viewer into a feminine perspective of beauty, attraction and sexuality constructed in what appears to be a never ending action of turning through materials such as video, sculpture and the direction the audience physically moves around the exhibition space."

The one thing I am very much enjoying so far about my electronic visual diary is that I am able to make sense of all these pieces I have been carrying around. Now, I can read my statement next to the transcript from Mad Men and really see why it is that short clip my friend posted on Facebook really stood out for me.