The Panic Broadcast

We just had to include this somewhere in the run up to 30 October when (albeit in 1938) a notorious episode of the US radio drama Mercury Theater was broadcast.  As a special Halloweed treat they adpated HG Wells' novel of Martian invaders, The War of the Worlds.

In a series of new bulletins, the first forty minutes of the show was presented as a live on air eye-witness account of the invasion.  People looked at their radios strangely and half believed what they were hearing that night. What made it worse was the fact that Mercury Theater had no commercial breaks - so it just added to the realism of the show.

Some versions of history have it that there was mass panic.  This was simply not so but there was certainly mass indignation with many partially or completely taken in people complaining that the show had been too real (a complaint which still regularly happens about TV shows and movies to this day).  However, the whole thing did no harm to the career of the young man who had brought it all together - Orson Welles.

So, to celebrate that 30 October broadcast, here is a contemporary re-animation (as it were) of parts of the show, brought vividly to life by the Dead Astronauts.  There are even subtitles for our Spanish readers, which thanks to our latest stats I can tell you make up over 20% of Kuriositas' readership.It's a great adpatation of the broadcast - made even greater by the fact that all the characters are played by people knitted out of wool, possibly even crocheted.  Odd but strangely cool, or is that strangely odd but cool?

Better Sweaters Make Beautiful Beasts

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

It isn’t a prequisite of art that it must make one smile, but certainly artist Elaine Bradford must have one on her face when she comes up with her ideas. One could almost go a step further and argue that there may have been just a little bit of playfulness involved too.  Art and playfulness can make good bedfellows (for a number of reasons) and that is certainly the case here.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

Bradford’s artistic world is imaginary – and is inhabited with its own wildlife.  Yet in this world perhaps the weather is known for its sudden inclemency.  Her animals are the customers of a bespoke clothes maker who painstakingly crochets sweaters and other garments for them.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

And as with any imaginary worlds there are more worlds within.  The horn of this antelope is extended - and he proudly wears his imagination as well as his crocheted apparel on the outside.  A closer look reveals that his benevolent gaze is directed towards the protected home of a family of pandas.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

Bradford is mostly known for this work and the absurdity of the idea led her to create a Museum of Unnatural History where the animals could be displayed.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

There is some irony, not to mention satire here.  Anyone who has visited a museum or a stately home replete with its collection of long dead animals, taxidermied and mounted can probably recall the stale taste of dust and the sombre and silent reverence that accompanies such displays.  Perhaps these animals should never have had their lives cut short to adorn the buildings of man.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

Yet their lives were destroyed so why not return to these shells a certain joie de vivre?  It isn’t so much reanimation as rehabilitation.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

Yet despite this new lease of life (or perhaps because of it?) the animals have managed to escape from their installation at least once and found themselves at one with nature again.  Even though their own form might not be accurately described as natural.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

All of this must have taken a great deal of time – not to mention yarn.   Based in Houston, Texas perhaps Bradford’s largest piece is her elephant in a sweater (below) which has echoes for me of Babar (although that is probably my imagination).  She is a MFA (California Institute of the Arts) and her work has been exhibited in many venues around the US.

Image Credit Flickr User esbradford

Kuriositas would like to thank the artist, Elaine Bradford, for her kind permission to reproduce the above images.  Please visit her Flickr photostream and her website where you will find many more examples of her work.