Reflective Encounters

“The Hangman at Home (inspired by the 1922 poem by the same name by Carl Sandburg) plays with the nature of the audience as we witness the lives of five individuals as they enact interesting moments of their lives. Also created as a 25min VR performance/installation, the film is equal parts intriguing and uncomfortable. With each character separated by their own individual colour palettes, we watch with growing awareness that, whatever happens in an individual life, the tragedy, the tenderness, the humility ties us all together as being inherently human.

As the characters one by one break the fourth wall, staring blankly and directly at us, the power dynamic with the viewer is inverted, creating a shared sense of an uncanny vulnerability, as if to ask who are we to judge the actions of these fictionalised characters, we who are seeing but a snapshot of a life as potentially diverse and complex as our own? The hand-touched aesthetic mirrors these questions in its inherent tactility. Paired with the exaggerated/altered design of the characters drawn, in part, over live-action footage, this visual style creates a sense of physical presence and real world environments whilst anonymising the actors and using the inherent otherness afforded by animation to keep us separated and wondering.”

— Laura-Beth Cowley