The Reason Why I am Talking About Orwell's Novella "Animal Farm" When I Should be Writing my Artist Statement

The important things don’t matter as much as the details. I understand the gist of an overall grand scheme of a narrative or whatever but those ideas doesn’t really interest me. They are sort of finite. I like things to have a little wiggle room for interpretation purposes. That’s why I tend to fixate on the little things; the details that are small and brief, but if you stare at it long enough, it tells to everything and more.

The whole story.


For example, I remember reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and there’s one part during the animal rebellion where Snowball tells all the animals to destroy all the things that reminded them of their former owners. For some reason, I was a preoccupied by what happened Boxer’s straw hat:

    “When Boxer heard this he fetched the small straw hat which he wore in
    summer to keep the flies out of his ears, and flung it on to the fire with
    the rest.”

First of all, the straw hat is described as “small” which makes it a little endearing, as if fixing this adjective automatically transforms this object into another character in the story. Second, it was a source of comfort as it kept the flies out of Boxer’s ear during--what can be assumed--hot uncomfortable summers. So far, a helpful little hat. But in the end, Boxer tosses the hat into the fire. 



A tragedy! 


This is the only mention of Boxer’s hat in the whole novella. It is only one sentence long. Yet, it can viewed as a short biography of the life and death of a little straw hat.

What does this have to do with my work?

I suppose it has to do with my fixation/obsession with how seemingly fleeting events, details, or moments can turn into an important element in a work of narrative, situation, or what have you. In Cloud Love (the title as no significant meaning . . . for now), I took an episode from an old TV show called Mr. and Mrs. North and sorted out all the clips of Mrs. North running around. Looking at these alone, outside of the context of the episode's narrative, there's a sense of desperation, of urgency. But of what? The cloud? It is work about the fear of the great beyond. The piece is stagnant without the narrative found in it's original context and still it operates within a micro-narrative, a sub-narrative space. A trapped women.

That is all you need to know.