The Victorian Freak Show

The Victorian Freak Show.

Beth:

Everyone's a freak. No two bodies are the same; we all have unpleasant, wonderful, shocking and extraordinary features; we are all unique. But for centuries the word 'freak' has been used cruelly to describe people born with 'abnormal' features, or those able perform extraordinary physical acts by contorting or misshaping their bodies.

Exhibitions of live human curiosities had appeared in travelling fairs, circuses and taverns in England since the 1600s. These included so-called giants, dwarves, fat people, the very thin, conjoined twins and even people from exotic climes. Freak shows were a particularly popular form of entertainment during the Victorian period, when people from all classes flocked to gawp at these unusual examples of human life.

　

　

　I think everyone is fascinated by the unusual, creating a frenzy of curiosity. We took an existing exhibition on the absurd, the Victorian freak show and created an art freak show. We attempted to fool the audience the show was a genuine freak show by not specifying either way, people turned up not knowing what to expect. Presented with a display of absurdities it was an attempt to speak to the uncanny and the curiosity in everybody’s mind.

　

　

The Uncanny

　

　

As a connection to the Victorian period, striped curtains were hung to display one of the pieces of work. The work was a gold frame with a blond hair piece hanging from the middle and was in eye view as you walked into the gallery space. It helped the piece be a focal point.

At first we had hung the large colourful portrait in the middle but as the curtains draped it covered corners of the piece, we felt we shouldn’t be changing the work and the piece was powerful enough without using extra props to draw attention to it. We felt the back wall was very bare so added the piece to this wall.

　

　

The gold frame was initially hung next to the two feminine poster designs which we felt looked like a series all together. Being a series made the work seem feminine and pretty, much less freaky and certainly not linked to the uncanny. Taking the gold frame away let both pieces of work shine in their own light.

The hanging teddy pieces were discussed and we were undecided as to how they would be shown as they were intended to be hung from the ceiling but there were no beams in the room. We thought it might be effective to lay them in the room as a floor piece but felt they would be much better hung.

I feel the pieces would have been much more powerful on the back wall to the exhibition where the desk was allowing them to have more focus just on them as they may have been slightly lost in the doorway as people walked past them to get into the space.

The teddies were chose because of their creepiness. Teddies are usually contected to children, warmth and happiness but these had been cut up, sewn together with other parts and hung, taking away any pleasantries connected with the objects.

　

　

One choice I think was fantastic for the exhibition was Kate Placketts mechanical bell structures which was used visually as sculptures and as a performance which help capture the attention of the exhibition viewers.

The mechanical structure gave a robotic futuristic feel to the theme. A connection to Mary Shellys Frankenstein and his monster and to the Futurists.

　

Marinetti of the Futurists expressed a passionate loathing of everything old, especially political and artistic tradition. "We want no part of it, the past", he wrote, "we the young and strong Futurists!" The Futurists admired

speed, technology, youth and violence, the car, the airplane and the industrial city, all that represented the technological triumph of humanity over nature, and they were passionate nationalists. They repudiated the cult of the past and all imitation, praised originality, "however daring, however violent", bore proudly "the smear of madness", dismissed art critics as useless, rebelled against harmony and good taste, swept away all the themes and subjects of all previous art, and gloried in science. (Ger. Das Unheimliche -- literally, "un-home-ly", but idiomatically, "scary", "creepy") is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.[1

The Private View

Craig:


Well the exhibition was put up yesterday and the private view was a success. I'd just like this opportunity to congratulate everyone, we all worked hard and although we had our differences, we all had equal parts and we got the job done in the end. I'd also like to say a special thanks to Max, he stayed all day with me and we both made the private view a success, getting the refreshments, rounding up people and even doing a small performance of our own. I'd also like to thank all the artists who displayed work and a very special thanks to Kate Plackett who's astounding performance stole the show.

    
Thanks
Craig

What a hit!

Maxwell- I just want to say that the private view was an absoloute hit, and people seemed to very much enjoy the work we had up, obviously aswell as the vast amount of fizzy pop and sweeties too! It was a very tiring day for everyone but the end result for me was very pleasing. I feel a lot was learnt today, widely ranging from the assembling of the work to conducting health and safety checks on all our equipment. It was encouraging to see people on the whole working well together and getting a good job done. I look forward to seeing the response tomorrow as more people see our display!! Good effort guys. :)

every one has a role

hi guys i think we did readlly well to pull our exhibition together today. i'm glad i was there to help install. i did point out in the begining of this project that i'm not too hot on the computer side of things, so although i have not entered too much on the blog. i have been up to date with all the plans. it was also tricky for me to get to every meeting as i work and i'm a mom. today i was told that i have had nothing to do with organising of this exhibition. i feel that is unfair as i have met up with other students from the group after lectures and i have been one of the key players in securing work by approaching artists both face to face and on the phone. i spent time creating the posters with bethany. i helped get the work into ps1 and bought much of the equipment needed to display the works. i also took a days holiday from work to install. i feel rediculously petty pointing out what i've done but it seems this needs to be done in order for people to recognise my efforts. this has been a team effort and we have all been integral to the prodution of this exhibition. the point of a team is that we make use of each individuals strengths to put on a fantastic show. some of us are thinkers and some are do-ers, and you can't have one without the other! 
it was a great shame that none of you guys that have put so much work in were there in time for your big evening! there was a fantastic response.

Beth: The posters that I spent a lot of time on in the print room had been discussed beforehand, as for colour etc. I have expressed this in meetings and the posters I posted on the blog that I had found to fit with the theme matched the colours used for the posters. It was only a matter of asking for what colour was going to be used, but with the blog background matching an all, i didn’t think it would be all that discreet. The colour of the posters was discussed and decided before the fabric bought and the t shirts worn.
I went in to finish the posters on Friday morning, to cut them and to add information to find people had took my designs and just placed them around the college without the information. If it was such a desperation to be put up the day before it would have taken two seconds to print out information and stick it onto the posters which I had to do Friday as my posters has already been used.
I’m concerned people are forgetting the show is an ‘art’ show and are focusing more on making themselves and the room freaky which will draw attention away from the work which a few of us curated…the whole idea of the project being the curation.
I have put a lot of thought and work into this project and don’t appreciate people, however subtle, pointing a finger at me.
I can also stress how important the meetings were and also that that weren’t always at convenient for everybody but there was very few people who actually turned up to every single one, if any at all, to point out Max Emily and Craig for being there every time. I know I wasn’t at every single one, but I attended as many as I could and have been involved as much as I could.

Curtain material

The material is two-toned which will be cool with the different lights provided by Steph, Dec, Charlie. The light will effect and manipulate the shades.

Emma Starkey

Freak Show - Birmingham City University

Emma Starkey