The construction of Crewdson's tableau require sets using Hollywood style production techniques. Locations can take months to scout, and a crew of 40 is required to set up lighting gantries, rain and smoke machines. The human subjects are directed on set like actors (although Crewdson laughingly acknowledges they are more like objects). The outcome is a highly stylised 'movie feel' image.
The work has been described as 'other worldly' and a 'tableau of small town America'. The resulting images are dramatic and compelling. They denote captured in-between moments, tense with anticipation of what has gone before or after - the viewer is left to fill in the narrative. These in-between moments also connote an off screen human crisis. Crewdson's affinity with films that have a darker underside plays out in his own work.
In an interview with The American Reader.com Crewdson is asked if "setting up the sets is reminiscent of childhood elements of play" and was he ever "frustrated or limited during play?" Crewdson thinks this is a "beautiful point" and states that he did indeed make miniature worlds as a child and was very persistent in his attention to detail. The notion of childhood frustration is sidestepped or overlooked.
I can see the relevance of the question. Children often learn about the world through fantasy and play. Unfortunately it can also be the only means of escape from a troubled childhood. This question made me think about my childhood experiences and how I approach my own work. The Rubber Flapper piece could be described as a constructed fantasy world; one with dark undertones that are embedded at a deeper (even unconscious) level than I've ever thought about before. And now that I type this, another image that I made that was actually inspired by Crewdson immediately springs to mind as having darker undertones that relate to my childhood.
"Flashback" From assignment 3, PWDP.
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