Selected Works: Reel 1

USA 1972, video, b&w, sound, 30:38 min

realized by:

William Wegman

keywords:

self-appearance, animals, humor

notes:

Produced between 1970-1972.

cast&crew:

appearance:

William Wegman, Man Ray (the dog)

available copies:

Video Data Bank:

video, sound

available for rent

Electronic Arts Intermix - EAI:

video, sound

available for rent

synopsis: http://www.speronewestwater.com, 31.07.2004

Microphone
Pocketbook Man
Anet and Abtu
The Ring
Randy's Sick
Milk/Floor
Stomach Song
Happy Song
The Door
William Wegman in Chinese
Elbows
Dress Curtain
Hot Sake
Caspar
Handy
Out and In
Plunger Series
Nosy
Firechief
Come In
Hidden Utensil
Contract
Puppet
Shadows
Ventriloquism
Light Trails
Cape On

synopsis: Video Data Bank, Chicago

This selection contains over thirty shorts, including many note-worthy sketches:
1) Man Ray Dragging Microphone
2) Wegman With Handbags
3) Talking Fish
4) Wegman In Chair Twiddling Thumbs
5) Studio Lamps
6) Trail Of Milk
7) Singing Stomach
8) Singing Face On Paper
9) Wegman And Man Ray Exiting And Re-entering House
10) "William Wegman" Chinese Characters
11) Wegman With Wrap-around And Shoulders As Breasts
12) Wegman In Dress/ Drapes
13) Hot Sake 14) Twirling Doll And Black Doll
15) Feet And Hands
16) Wegman Picking Nose
17) Plunger
18) Moving Nose
19) Wegman In Fire Chief's Hat
20) Wegman As Director
21) Upside Down Plate
22) Mouth/ Nose--"Time To Go"
23) Dummy And Microphone
24) Two Balls And Black Pieces Of Paper
25) Closed-eye Man
26) Man Ray Dragging Flashlight In Dark
27) Man Ray In Cape Turning Head

synopsis: Copyright Electronic Arts Intermix, New York. See the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work

In "Reel 1", Wegman creates deadpan one-liners and ironic sight gags from materials that include his own body, everyday objects such as balls and dolls, and his dog Man Ray. The humor derives from the wild incongruity of expected and actual behavior or events. Inanimate objects are personified; extended actions lead to absurd anticlimaxes. In "Singing Stomach", Wegman sits in a chair, his bare torso facing the camera. As he gruffly hums a song, his torso becomes a face, with nipples as eyes, navel as mouth. Raising his arms, the "facial" features change gender and he hums in falsetto. Other segments find him blowing a feather from his nose and creating pendulous female "breasts" by folding his elbows to his body. The ever-obliging Man Ray drags a microphone in his mouth, laps up milk that Wegman has drooled onto the floor, and, in an oddly poetic exercise, runs through a darkened room with a flashlight in his mouth.

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