W U R L D
FROM WIRE MAGAZINE, MARCH 2011:
Did you ever, as a child, construct a tiny private world in your back garden? Can you remember spending long days hypnotised by the miniature, lost in the intimate intricacies of scale? Over the course of one year, Jordan McKenzie and Emi Honda of Canadian duo Elfin Saddle transformed the backyard of their Montréal apartment into an evolving installation, incorporating plants, sculpture and assemblages, which they documented using stop-motion and timelapse photography. The result is Wurld, a 23 minute film that charts the rise and fall of an entire civilisation – with a beguiling and extremely effective soundtrack to match. History begins with pebbles and wood in jungle surroundings, organising themselves into primitive structures: a harmonious simplicity conveyed through rudimentary rhythms, banjo, birdsong and the sound of scratchy vinyl signifying antiquity. With creeping industrialisation comes metal and machinery, then furnaces and fences, and the sound of rusty clanks and mechanistic loops. As ‘progress’ accelerates – and the greenery dwindles – metal gives way to plastic. Wurld becomes crowded, cluttered with useless debris and detritus, soundtracked by sped-up tapes and disorientating info-flickers, rushing headlong into madness and extinction. …The animation conveys a rickety wonder: like a more innocent version of Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer… - Daniel Spicer
To screen Wurld please contact us
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