Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck Video
Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck takes audiences into dark allegorical scenes depicting religious iconography, outmoded superstition and slapstick comedy.
The work employs imagery from British ecclesiastic stained glass to create a visually and conceptually rich, dense and multi-layered film. The work references Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial 1963 short film La Ricotta, (for which he was imprisoned for blasphemy on the basis of 'enacting' a religious scene as a comedy sketch). The scenes that unfold invoke both a sense of unease and amusement operating in a space between faith and flippancy.
The bold colours and dramatic compositions of stained glass are echoed within the film's scenes. Characters inhabit a world of allegory and slapstick within a constructed set that lies somewhere between medieval imagery, cubist and fauvist painting and a stoned teenager's bedroom. A soundtrack of 12th Century choral music juxtaposed with dance hall beats, spoken dialogue and voice-overs becomes an additional discordant layer.
In this world characters turn from stained glass to humans to paper and back again, they speak theatrically - slowly, stilted and with precision. This careful dialogue is punctuated by contemporary references jarring in the same way that the black lead punctuates and separates the figures within ecclesiastical glass.
The film's use of many different and often contradictory references, its clash of opulence and low-fi and the use of unexpected, humorous dialogue all catch audiences off guard.
Distribution: LUX