Thomas Woodruff's The Freak Parade

This exhibit is another that I was blessed to see.  The Thomas Woodruff Freak Parade was indeed nothing short of never ending eye candy.  Each panel was at least 6 ft. tall and they were all connected, one right after the other.  Each was so full of visual information that one could sit in front of one panel for an hour and still find new interesting details minutes later.  Below is an explanation of the artist's intention with this series of works.  

About Freak Parade

"The Freak Parade is a dazzling parade of images that celebrates beauty in aberrance (irrationality).  The parade’s hapless yet noble characters march gaily across a black expanse (canvas), each member on a different panel.  The procession begins with “Anatomy Boy,” an elegant lad flayed (stripped of skin) from the shoulders down, and ends with “Sweeper,” a grim reaper dressed in a costume that might be described as “heavy metal Watteau (Watteau, after an artist who revived the use of color and movement in painting).”  All the parade participants are rendered (skillfully drawn) in loving detail and delicately embellished (made beautiful) with tiny rhinestones.  Woodruff began this project in late 2000 as a reaction against the global standardization (normalization) of culture.  Among the references are sideshow banners, Pompeian wall frescoes (painting made on fresh plaster), Baroque religious paintings, theatrical posters, and Victorian penmanship charts.  References to “normal” parades (Mummers, Tournament of Roses, Mardi Gras, Macy’s) are included but turned on their heads.  Each image has a caption, title, or poem included.  Written by the artist, these texts add another level of meaning to the pictures.  They are deliberately subdued (dulled down) and darkened and subvert (overcome) the viewer’s usual response, so conditioned through advertising, to image and text"  (thomaswoodruff.com).  

How does the explanation relate to the drawings?  How are the works of art indeed Freakish?  Some of you may find that his explanation was not specific enough or it just simply did not make sense.  If this is the case then, come up with your own interpretation of what the artist was trying to accomplish with this series.  Key items to mention when writing your response:

Talk about his use of color

Talk about his subject matter

Why Freak Show?

What is unusual about the characters in his paintings?

What does his work remind you of?

How long do you think it took him to finish his series?

What did Woodruff mean by global standardization of culture?  
How do these works resemble Surrealism?

Below is a link to the rest of the works in the series, look at the entire series before writing your response.   

Thomas Woodruff Freak Show!

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