The Freak Show

Carousel Pole, Steel, Mirror, Transparent paper, Watercolor, Marker, Clay.

Layer I: The Machine

Before the digital age, this was how the illusion of movement was created. Ink on paper, paint on canvas, hand-spun aparatices with the single purpose of bringing someone joy. Known as a magic trick in the old age of animation, this machine–called a praxinoscope–was a predecessor of animation as we know it today. I believe that in order to appreciate our modern tools, an artificially intelligent machine that works just as hard as I do and pens that can only draw virtual lines, I must first understand what this world was like without them.

Layer II: The Sideshow

The outer appearance of this machine may seem strange to you– a miniature merry-go-round that taunts you to take it for a spin. I am a collector of sorts, my entire room being drenched in clowns and circus memorabilia that frightens and intrigues my guests. Carnivals and clowns perfectly sum up all that I stand for: they are a lighthearted, whimsical concept on the surface, encouraging childlike wonder and joy, but often have dark underbellies that they seldom try to hide. I enjoy the beauty in the grotesque, and I adore the horror in the pure.

Layer III: The Main Performance

This character, named Ghoul, has been with me for three grand years now. They, too, are a vile yet beautiful creature. You may watch as they climb the stairway of corpses, and be saddened knowing that they will never reach their goal, yet Ghoul’s ascent never falters. Each step they climb is made from the bodies of people just like them, but who fell where they stood due to dehydration or perhaps dysentery. But with each failure, it allowed our beloved protagonist to get one step closer to completing this endless nightmare. As the saying goes: if at first you don’t succeed, build a stairway out of your own corpses and try, try again.

This was my final project for highschool. Animation machines date back to the 1600's, and were thought of as magic, this is still a common sentiment today. I dedicated this year of my life to the history of animation, in honor of my acceptance to Vancouver Film School as an animation major. I wanted to start at the beginning before learning the modern techniques.

The body of the machine represents a carousel, and uses a genuine carousel horse pole. The viewer is meant to watch the animation on the mirrors in the center, which were cut to size and soldered together by yours truly. The base is an umbrella base, and the golden decor on the outside was made using sculpy and cupcake decorating molds.

The animation inside does not play correctly, which is very disapointing, but you can still understand the movement of the character as you spin the drum. I animated the walk cycle digitally on Flash, then printed out the sequence and traced each frame onto transparent paper.

During the opening of the gallery I encouraged passerby to spin the drum for themselves; many viewers were nervous to touch a piece of art. The piece now lives in my mom's garage.