General Narrative
The Wicked Witch of the West has been resurrected. She summons Dorothy back to Oz in order for her to defeat Glinda, to become a proper legitimate witch and take Glinda’s place. To do this Dorothy has to build a new extension of the yellow brick road to reach Glinda. While Dorothy is accomplishing this task, the wicked witch is casting a “traveling” spell to aid Dorothy on her journey (however, the spell cannot / should not be heard by Dorothy who is wearing ear protection). When Glinda hears the Witch of the West’s casting the spell she is immediately affected by the spell. Realizing that Dorothy is coming to defeat her she transforms herself into a pop-up tackling dummy in hopes to foil Dorothy’s attempt in becoming a “certified” witch of Oz.
The Traveling Spell: Is a Musical Verse/ theme that is played to clear the air of any obstructions so a witch (or would-be witch) can pass through space and time easily. (It was originally used when Elphaba was learning to fly on her broom.) However if the spell is heard by someone or something that lays in the path of travel they or it will become passive and stagnate to allow the person on the journey to travel without incident. Traditionally it is used by the witch (or person) doing the traveling, but in this case it is being used to aid in someone else’s journey. So, Dorothy must not hear the spell or she will become passive and stagnate and will not be able to accomplish her task and journey, hence the ear protection. This idea deals with tension surrounding the power struggle, within an identity. I asked this question: who or what is bad or evil, and how does one become either or both. In addition, there is the notion that art is “magical” and retains its own sense of power and transcendence. Dorothy as she exists in the narrative is in a transitional state. She is no longer the hero or villain, a witch good or bad, athlete or ex-athlete, and neither accomplished or unfinished. She operates between two poles, (Elphaba and Glinda), good and bad. The west witch is a musical entity that lubricates the struggle at hand with sound and acts as support during travel. Glinda is the archetype of “good” that contradicts and challenges Dorothy with the expectations surrounding her role in the world that confines and controls her. This paring of character and ideas will enable me to create a world within a fantasy spectrum I have not yet dealt with in my work.
Artist Statement (for the DOROTHY project):
My work revolves around projects that I develop from a central theme or idea. These ideas are influenced by my life experiences as a southerner, ex-football player, rock n roll fan, ex-construction worker and artist. Contemplating these experiences a dialogue formed between the locations where these events took place and how the events effected the development of my identity. I developed characters and narratives, as a result this dialogue. Eventually they support the videos, costumes, props/objects, drawings, and photographs that are combined to make an installation environment. It is my hope; this will engage the viewer on multiple levels, as they become a part of the final narrative.
Recently I have been thinking about the relationship between my own childhood fantasies and the influence of films, such as “The Wizard of Oz”, “Star Wars”, “Mad Max” and “The Dark Crystal” and how now as an adult, rock n roll has become a filter that these fantasies pass through. I have been examining the process of how I choose and create the characters in my work and the way these characters seem to develop their own soundtrack that become a theme for the actions they perform in the video narratives. This motivated me to begin researching the urban legend that suggests that Pink Floyd’s album, “Dark Side of the Moon” if played simultaneously with the film “The Wizard of Oz” acts as the sound track to images on the screen, which has come to be known as the “The Dark Side of Oz”. Being very familiar with the album and the movie, I had never attempted to prove the urban legend true. This notion of combining these disparate icons into an experience that could change the context of both, made me ask myself, “How would I create my own version of this legend?” or what could add a weird twist on the whole idea?”
If I was going to take on a project to put my own twist on the idea of combining Pink Floyd with the Wizard of Oz, I needed to absorb as much information as possible on this urban legend, the band and the movie. I read the original The Wizard of Oz and the prequel Wicked. This produced an opinion of Oz that deviated from any of my childhood impression of Oz. In addition, I collected numerous books that gave me a glimpse into the making of the film adaptation of the book. I listened to all of Pink Floyd’s albums, watched their film “The Wall” and read about the band’s relationship to the urban legend related to The Wizard of Oz, which they adamantly denied any intention to have the album connect to the film.
The investigation into the world of Oz, the books, films and album had no clear-cut heroes or villains or any distinction between good and evil. Oz had duality and subversion intertwined throughout out its social structure and was a dark, violent, and sinister place to live. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West were actually scapegoats in the stories and both were manipulated to serve the desires of the Great and Terrible Oz. Who ruled and fooled the people of Oz. This lead to a series of questions that opened the door for a body of work that combines and mixes the characters from all theses sources to creates a strange reaction to the importance of myth, legend and fantasy though out my life.