These two photographs inspired a colorful, dreamy, David Lynch-ish traveling performance piece by American artist Jenny Fine. I wrote about Jenny’s series, titled “The Saddest Day” a few years ago – a heartbreaking project she did with her dear grandmother, Sarah, shortly before her death. Almost all of Jenny’s work is an homage to her Granny, and the beautiful dedication continues! May I present Flat Granny and Me: A Procession in My Mind:
“Intertwining the historic narrative surrounding the plight of my South Alabama farming community at the hands of the Mexican Boll Weevil with the memory-scape of my grandmother riding in the annual Boll Weevil Parade as 1968 Woman of the Year; past meets present, reality and memory collide placing the viewer in a dream-like setting and state. Part cyclorama/part moving image, A Procession… was created in an attempt to “reverse the camera’s crop” – returning space and time to the still image; and doing so, attempts to redefine the form and function of the photograph in our contemporary, image-saturated world.”
So beautiful. And that’s “Flat Granny” above — a life-size photographic cutout of her grandmother turned costume. A full video of this dreamlike performance piece can be seen on Jenny’s site. There are also gorgeous behind-the-scenes photos that go into detail about the gorgeous costumes, lighting, etc. It’s all just so weird and beautiful.
I really like seeing the inspiration for her work! Also, I grew up about 45 minutes from Enterprise, AL. I know that boll weevil well! Really dreamy/interesting/inspired work.
wow! that’s crazy small world stuff right there!