not singing but screaming

4. This is Mags, so-called because her mouth is a magnolia
blossom. She has a range of flower buds from quite closed
to wide open and screaming.
Flowers represent aspects of the ‘feminine’ in lots of
collage works, from the Surrealists such as Dali’s Flower Girl
to contemporary artists like Linder.

5. Poppy – you’re known for your famous snarls and
growls – can you explain what they’re all about please?
Don’t you ever get angry? Everybody does!
Unfortunately in this misogynistic society it has been
thought very ‘unladylike’ to express anger. “Calm down,
Dear”. What crap! That makes me angry.
The repression of emotions is unhealthy – the emotions
themselves are not. We just have to learn how to deal
with them. And if feeling really angry means we have to
screech or growl or shout then so be it.
Women often say they are ‘fine’ when they really aren’t
just for a quiet life or not to have to talk about what’s
bothering them, or not to frighten the children.
Being in Lockdown has increased pent up feelings –
fear, anger, sadness, worry etc.
Women have to be better role models for their
daughters.
Snarl!

7. So, Sad Girl, Tell us about your meteoric rise to stardom.
Well, I was just an unpaid intern, the body double. I was
made from a few scraps and a quick felt tipped pen scribble
to stand in for the real stars while the team got the lighting
and the set right. I didn’t even have a body at first. You can
see the contraption on my head that holds me onto the edge
of the glass plate – masking tape and wire!
The producer was busy making the stars with plans for more
polish and precision and detail. They were to have limbs and
lots of movement.
Why did that stop?
Apparently, there was something about the way I carried a
haunting message in my simplicity. Movement wasn’t
needed, in fact movement detracted from the intensity of the
stare.
So I got the starring role and the others had to adapt to my
style and slightly punk aesthetic.
Eventually I was given a body with appropriate text.
And are you a sad girl?
Not necessarily – I’ve just got one of those faces that looks
sad when I’m concentrating. I am sad sometimes, or angry
or scared, you just can’t tell. That’s sort of the message of
the film, I think.
Interview
with Sad
Girl – an
unlikely
star

8. Catching up with Daisy.
I was named for my rather special eyes. We all have
flowers for our eyes with an occasional real eye
thrown in for drama. Windows of the soul, they say.
Eyes and mouths – that’s what it’s all about in this
film. That’s why we never got our articulated limbs –
we didn’t need them for the story. Less is more, that
way a single blink holds the tension.
The glass became very important for the scene I star
in. It’s very old and semi obscured – a thick greenish
screen with lots of little bubbles and scratches. It
was part of the veranda on an old house at the
location. I felt safe behind it and protected but I also
felt trapped and inside a glass case – a specimen.
Then the extra layer of the mesh made me a bit
claustrophobic.

9. Smellovision -
• ‘Odours are mostly invisible, and it often feels as
if they do not have a place in the largely visual
world of art, but that does not mean that we
should forget about them entirely and the role
that they play’ Lizzie Marx (2020)The Six
Senses – Linderism Kettles Yard
• ………an intimate connection between emotions,
memories and scents. This is why memories
triggered by scents as opposed to other senses
are "experienced as more emotional and more
evocative," said Rachel Herz,
• https://www.livescience.com/why-smells-trigger-
memories.html

10. Punk and Linder
‘Women’s bodies are
publicly offered up as
either a desirable object,
domesticated prize or sex
toy. Linder’s jigsaw puzzles
mash up pouty lips, fresh
cupcakes, spread legs and
vacuum cleaners to
hyperbolize the ridiculous
impossibility of the
feminine “ideal.” ‘
Huff Post 2017 Musee
d’Arte Moderne

11. The Set, scenery and props
• Glass – found at the bottom of the
location garden – from the original 1926
veranda
• Mesh – the used grill top from a
disposable barbecue that failed after
three attempts – no food was harmed in
the making of this film
• Net curtain – care of Dunelm Mill
• Tracing paper – care of the studio
• Backdrop – clothes maiden and used
paper tablecloth

12. kitchen
The kitchen projection onto the tiled splash-back
of the cooker shows the workplace where many
women produce and deliver food to families
every day. There is a background soundtrack of
crockery and cutlery suggesting that a meal is on
its way or has just been cleared away. the kitchen
can also be a dangerous place with tools,
machinery, fuel - knives, flames, gas all available.
The kitchen can be the hub of the family or a
lonely place of toil. In the 1950s the British
Kitchen Sink painters (all men ironically) depicted
domestic scenes as they really were - social
realism. John Bratby's 'Still Life with Chip Fryer'
and 'Toilet' were dismissed by critics.

13. bathroom
The bathroom projection is distorted by the curve of the
bath tub and shows some reflections from the acrylic
surfaces. There are noises of hand-washing, toothbrush
action and water sluicing down the drain. We are
vulnerable in the bathroom as we undress and are
unprotected by our clothes. It is the room most usually
closed or even locked. We see ourselves in mirrors and
often judge what we see. Bonnard's paintings of his wife,
Martha, in the bath suggest her fragility, in contrast many
women have joyous memories of having fun bathing
their children and playing with the water.

14. bedroom
The bedroom projection casts the film across the pillows
of a recently vacated bed suggesting that one of the
screaming or singing women is close by and may return.
Pillows are very intimate objects. Albrecht Durer made
some exquisite ink drawings of pillows in 1493. Tracey
Emin shared her unmade bed with us some 500 years
later.

15. And the title?
• Borrowed from Stevie Smith

16. Sad Girl has some links to share
https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/
https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/coronavirus-
information-and-support
https://youngminds.org.uk/
https://www.mind.org.uk/
https://www.rethink.org/
https://museumofthemind.org.uk/