#im still wondering if the bird of paradise is a good pick

[elementalladymallorie]

So I have recently been doing flower associations/analysis/whatever these should be called for another fandom, and wanted to do this for a few other people. So now we have Sun Wukong! I will say this is going to be influenced by the Lego Monkey Kid version, but I am building off of JTTW too.

For the Great Sage I believe the best flowers are Marigolds, Hyacinth, Peach Blossoms, and this one is a bit of stretch but Bird of Paradise.

These flowers all have multiple meanings, some changing based on color. I will be picking the meanings for those based on what feels like the best fit for Wukong.

First up Marigolds. A beautiful yellow flower that is sometimes called the Herb of the Sun, which Wukong was compared to the sun in LMK. Marigolds symbolize Power/Strength, Chasing Away Evil Spirits, and Brings Positive Energy.

Wukong is obviously one of the strongest people we see in any medium involving him. He bested countless deities, demons, and more. Wukong also has several different abilities/powers, too many to honestly probably keep up with. He chased away demons during the journey from his fellow pilgrims, ran off hunters from his mountain, and more. His ability to see through illusions could potentially be an evidence point towards chasing out evil spirits, since he can identify a threat despite it's disguises and trickery. Wukong, at least in the LMK show, admits to playing a fool at times. He acts foolish and like a jokester to bring levity to situations and more positive emotions to the people he's with, even if it doesn't always land.

Marigolds do also have negative connotations as well. They symbolize Grief, Despair, and Mourning.

Wukong has lost a lot of people in his life. He lost the other monkeys from his mountain, likely the other demon kings minus DBK since they don't show up again, and his fellow pilgrims. Grief accompanies loss easily, and despair may be a stretch, but it is also a common feeling for a loss. I don't think it's a stretch to say he mourns. We see in the LMK show that he made a small shrine with origami figures of his friends/brothers from the journey for the New Year Fireworks.

Next Hyacinths! Hyacinths have multiple means depending on the color, but also often the connotation of tragedy. As a whole, they can depict Rashness, while Purple Hyacinths represent Forgiveness, and like most purple flowers, Royalty.

Wukong could be at times rash, but he did grow from it. Wukong took on the name "Handsome Monkey King" and was king of his fellow monkey demons on Flower Fruit Mountain. Part of the Wukong's story in the JTTW is learning compassion, which can lead to forgiveness. Some versions of the story have Wukong releasing the hunters that attacked his home rather than killing them, which could be interpreted as forgiveness. I think we have some of that in LMK with his willingness to work with DBK, if that's maybe a bit of speculation.

Red Hyacinths represent Recreation and Playfulness. Pink Hyacinths similarly mean Joy and Fresh Starts.

Monkeys are noted in JTTW as being somewhat mischievous and very active. Part of Wukong's introduction is even mentioning how he and his friends would play in their home. Wukong is a very happy and 'bouncy' demon. Getting so excited he jumps around and can no longer sit still when he realizes he's going to learn from his first master. Wukong also gets a fresh start so to speak after being released from the mountain to travel with Tang Sanzang.

The next flower is perhaps a little on the nose, but Peach Blossoms! The blossoms that turn into one of Wukong's favorite foods, Peaches! Peach Blossoms represent Longevity.

Wukong became a Guardian of the Heavenly Peach Garden, and some of the peaches of this garden grant immortality to whomever eat them. Wukong, while already immortal at this point, does eat all types of the peaches grown in the garden. He also drinks the heavenly wine, and takes the longevity pills, so he very easily has a long life.

Peach Blossoms also symbolize Protection against Misfortune/Bad Luck and Luck.

I've already touched on Wukong's connection to warding off evil with Marigolds,and I don't want to reiterate too much. Wukong does help bring in luck as well, though. There are plenty of stories where he and his fellow pilgrims bring change to villages, and people with the defeat of some the demons they face. We even see in LMK Wukong fighting off DBK, and protecting a village which leads to a long time of prosperity. One would consider that quite lucky, I would think.

Our final flower may be a bit of a stretch but I think it fits the Monkey King pretty well, the Bird of Paradise.

The Bird of Paradise is very lovely and unique looking flower that are pollinated by sunbirds. They get their name for looking like a bird in flight, and symbolize Glamor and Joy.

Like the misfortune I don't to linger on something I've already looked at once but it's included because I think it just solidifies the connection between the flower choice and Wukong. Now, glamor can mean both magic or to make certain things more appealing/attractive. One of Wukong's titles is "The Handsome Monkey King". Though I'd like to focus more on the magic aspect of glamor. Wukong does have the ability to make himself appear as other people or creatures, and as stated earlier, he has several abilities that he has access too including magic.

The Bird of Paradise also symbolizes Freedom.

Like I said the flower looks like a bird in flight, which would lend itself to looking like freedom. Part of Wukong going with Tang Sanzang was for freedom from his punishment, but I think Wukong is also just a free spirt as well. He's playful, he seems to like to travel, and in LMK he seems to like thinking outside the box. He also flies with his cloud, and can turn into a bird and I've seen many, many connections between feelings of freedom being related to flight. I also think a young Monkey King had plenty of freedom on Flower Fruit Mountain.

Sun Wukong is a very complex character, in any iteration, with many layers and possible interpretations to his acts. His story had many ups and downs, similar to any story relating to some that would be/is labeled a hero. There are probably more flowers that can easily be associated with Wukong or that just fit different aspects that I didn't touch on in this. I think these four flowers hit a lot of points, both individually and together.

[thestormsroleplay]

Chapter three

Morning was the most important time of day to Gellert. It was so because how you woke up, how you spent your morning could often tell you what kind of day you are going to have. The night before, the days before, the years and decades... They didn't really matter. Morning came, it had no choice. A new morning meant new opportunities that rose with the sun, new things to search and to learn, new adventures to discover and had. A new morning had come to the Villa am Seen and the sun fought to reach the earth in a dull grey light through the clouds they had conjured with their storm. Gellert felt it touch his face and he moaned softly, fighting a bit to stay in slumber. There was wind, tricky and playful from the North. It ran about in the garden, shaking up the water from the rain of the night past, making the flowers bloom and sing in its wake. From his lounging point near the fire side of Tom's room, the older alpha could hear the music of nature, the crackling of a dying hearth, the twitter of brave birds that didn't care about anything outside their safe home.

 Gellert sighed in his slow awakening. He stretched all of his body, feeling his muscles and joints snap and tighten as he worked out the kinks of sleeping in an armchair from his person. His mind wandered back to the night before. The potion, and the boy and the magic. Oh! The magic! That sweet magic that still thrummed in the air even as Tom had lain unconscious in his arms. It clung to them like a phantom, alluring as the sweetest perfume. Such power! It held so much promise. There were still so many things they-- no, he could do. They were all so ripe for the picking. All he had to do was take them. Take Tom and harvest every last drop of him that was left. It was so tempting. So very tempting. A purr rumbled in his chest. It sounded just as wonderful in the morning as it did at night, but he knew better. He had decided to wait until the morrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.

 He had taken the boy back to his room and tucked him in. The magic that clung between them made leaving such a hard task that Gellert had no patience to do it. He had stayed, finding a comfortable warm place for himself to protect his brand new toy. He knew fully well he could have taken what was, according to Tom's pledge and his own natural right, what was his. Gods knew his young wolf was more than willing to give it all up. He had thrown all caution to the wind, after all. They both had, in that sacred moment. However, experience told him that that would only get him so far. His boy was so vain. He would awake mortified and shut the warlock out, for sure. And that wouldn't do at all. There were bridges that needed more than dominance to be crossed. They needed trust and consent. And so he took a moment of pride at his own restraint and mellowed back into the covers one of the house elves had certainly thrown over him in his slumber. He, his young cub, had to be guided, not pulled, into making the decision Grindelwald wanted him to make.

 Oh, but that was so hard when Tom could be so tempting...

 Gellert touched his own lips, feeling Tom's ghost over them. He could still taste him, all fire and steam and sweet crippling lust as they devoured one another. He had helped birth a new god into the world. And looking back at the slumbering figure... Oh, he did look like a deity – the perfect balance of danger and charm. He had, of course, honed that charm in his schooling years. He had surely made a note of every quality he should possess and made them his nature. The ritual had merely… enhanced what was already there. His boy now was, at the same time, fascinating and inaccessible to mere mortals; distant because of his demonstrated flawlessness, and possessing such strength, such fire, that he was dismaying and at the same time utterly attractive in an enticing and forbidden way. Gellert felt his teeth ache, longing for a bite. Soon, he soothed himself. Soon.

 Soon Tom would be his in all ways. Gellert smiled at the thought.

 But that would never happen if he spent his day curled in that chair. However, before he could think of summoning anyone, there was a faint pop at his side and Gellert saw an old house elf with pointed ears and dark nut-brown skin. The creature's eyes were wide and hazel colored and they looked up to the warlock in wonder and awe. "Guten Morgen, Meister. Wie kann Holly dir dienen?" It asked in its reverence, doing a very long and low curtsey. Gellert groaned and stretched again, mulling the question over in his mind. What did he want this fine morning? What would be ideal first meal after the storm in Paradise?

 "Kaffee" Slipped from his mind to his lips with ease. He desperately needed caffeine "Brot - geröstete brot - und süße brötchen. Für den englischen Prinzen." Surely a growing british boy would love sweet things. "Marmelade, honig, eier - alle Variationen -, aufschnitt und käse. Der Käse den ich aus der Toskana mitbrachte." He instructed, feeling a strange need to feed his young cub. He had been providing only the best for this estate, bringing foods from all over Europe and northern Africa as the muggles destroyed the world. He killed them and took their shipments. The rabid dogs didn’t need food. Especially when humans needed it so much more. The elves were very grateful to him, they desperately needed to serve on hand and foot; to make a master strong and healthy, and so they did not let anything go to waste. Especially not now, with a new guest. "Die früchte, die ich mitbrachte. Die orangen und mangos, schneiden sie für unseren Prinzen."

 "Ja, mein Meister." The creature curtsied again. "Soll Holly den Tisch am Abend Kammer eingestellt? Oder vielleicht im Solarium?" It suggested and Gellert thought about it. Tradition along suggested that he left the sleeping boy and changed for the day. In the old days of this house, they would all dine in the morning room, the windows open and charmed to keep any leftover weather out. They would be expected to wear their best, in honor of this home and their kind hosts. But they were alone and the mere idea of leaving Tom gave him such discomfort that he shook his head before the thought was ended.

 "Nein. Wir werden hier essen. Bring einen Tisch und bring ihn in die Nähe des Fensters" It would be so much more intimate, eating here. Like savages. Like lovers. Bathed in the silver of the morning, his young wolf blushing—Or maybe nit blushing, but hungry like last night. "Hol mir meine robe und mach ein bad, Holly. Ich möchte sauber sein, bevor der Prinz erwacht" A bath to shake away the cold of sleep and rinse him clean for this new day.

 "Ja, mein Master. Und das Feuer?" She pointed to dying fire. That wouldn't do at all.

 "Entzünde es wieder. Sofort." He ordered, getting up at long last. His order was quickly obeyed and that gave him great joy. He liked getting what he wanted when he wanted it. The elf was soon gone to fulfill his other ones and Gellert felt that this day would be a good one. He began to shed his clothes, one by one as he laid out his best plans when a couple of dark irises caught his glance. Sneaky boy, he caught himself thinking with a slow smirk. How long had he been awake? How long had he been unmoving, waiting for his time? Observing?

 "The prince is awake" He sighed in a tone that was almost purring, letting his shirt find the ground as he prowled to the bed and its laying master. "Guten Morgen, mein lieben herr." He stretched hand and caressed the side of his young wolf's face, looming over him half-dressed and darkly amused. "How did you sleep?" His hand slithered down that long, slender neck and gave it a comforting squeeze. “How are you feeling? I assure you, you aren’t in a dream no matter how good it is”

[pplowden]

Exaggeration and puppets

I decided to begin researching controlling exaggeration through how humans do it in performance, rather than verbally. This is because when humans perform with their bodies, it is always controlled and often exaggerated. For example in mime, exaggeration is the bases of the performance, the silence demanding more attention on the movement of the body and each movement emphasised to represent simple emotions.

I watched the animations of Jan Svankmajor, ‘Meat Love’ being one which really stood out. I found it so powerful because it had everything - birth, love and death. The fact that it is performed by two vulgar pieces of meat and its length is what exaggerates it; how can it be that two nonhuman things can explain human existence in a mere 1 minute?

In my zoom tutorial with Luke it was suggested I looked at Paul Klee hand puppets. I was not taken by their aesthetic but was drawn to the idea of puppets to explore exaggeration. Citing Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs ‘music box dance’ scene, this temptation became stronger. I realised everything in it was centred around exaggeration, the crowds outfits, a kid of a king, the music, and most of all the inhuman movement of a toy on a person. It made me wonder; If a puppet is representative of a person, it makes the audience question why are we seeing a puppet, not an actor? I believe the answer is because a puppet is a tool for exaggeration. A puppet is a dumbed down version of a person and must be controlled. It cannot move smoothly or freely and holds no real voice. The audience is challenged into understanding why each puppet has been assigned the dialogue and movement it has. It can only represent a few, clear things, rather than a whole complex, real person. Like mime, it shows that to exaggerate you must simplify.

Running with the idea of simplifying to exaggerate, I decided to make a plain puppet the size of my living room. I have enjoyed working large before and think it is a simple way of exaggerating something as it demands attention and makes the audience wonder why it is so big. By making it plain I was able to focus on exaggerating only one thing; the size.

I was happy with the outcome, I find it unsettling and like how it almost looks normal. It reminded me of the Alice and wonderland scene where she fills the whits rabbits house. Looking to Jordan Wolfsons puppet at the Tate and 2014 piece ‘Female Figure’ I felt that although I find his work difficult to watch, I like that he creates one puppet to focus on one thing. It shows why exaggeration works so well in puppets, because they can only show so much, you have to pick one thing/ characteristic and amplify it.

Brian Griffiths puppets showed me something similar, the explanation for his exhibition being ‘the puppet in its purest form and motion resembles something of the artifact, tool, machine or musical instrument. They are contradictory things to be looked at and spoken through, that are animated and brought to life via imagination and will’.

Puppets are merely a tool for what we, humans, want to talk about further, the things we want to exaggerate.

Lost with what interesting to do with this, I have decided to take on some advice I got in my tutorial that sometimes it is best to get lost in the process and not worry about the outcome. After watching the film ‘Being John Malkovich’ and discussing ideas with my brother and sister who I am in quarantine with, we have decided to get up early and create a one day project film, arriving dressed  up as a puppet and seeing what happens, exploring how that accidental becomes the deliberate. Working with some floating ideas we already have, we are hoping a narrative will form itself. I hope this will be a successful way to work during this time of lack of events, conversations and coincidences which would usually create a clearer process.

I am really happy with the outcome - we managed to create a short film in just one day ! We picked a doll that looked like me and used this as a starting point. Dressing up in the same top and doing my hair and make up, we began by finding places we could film which would look as if me and the doll where in the same place, wanting to play with the idea of realness and the artificial in puppets. This helped us a form a simple narrative about control and truth versus fiction. While I, supposedly human, cook a breakfast, the doll moves freely around the (doll)house. My movements become more and more manic until the breakfast becomes a live being who is controlling me ; I am in fact the puppet stuck in the dolls house and the plate of food is the thing left talking.

We used flour and makeup to create a slightly alarming and explicitly fake look, and playful music by Nina Rota. To exaggerate this all even further, we used ‘fake french’ for the script to further play on the ideas of a simplified, broken puppet, and as an exaggeration of French mime, whose character is often clumsy and clown like. The final line is ‘parceque, le grande catastrophe, of course c’est love’, spoken by the bacon and eggs face. This is a final half explanation of the mad puppet woman, but more so an exaggeration of the film, there has been no mention of love before this point, the script is almost nonsensical and this is humorous to end with something so grand and in some ways, untrue, and yet of course- it would be love.

I was super happy with the reaction, that they realised it was about purposeful failure as a I played on this a lot, for example I edited in moments where I didn’t known I was being filmed and exaggerated them further, exploring the accidental coming the deliberate.

I found that at first people were unsure of what to say. I guess this touches on what Claire said in our tutorial about the audience not knowing what to think about why I’ve made my work yet I feel that this reaction was perfect.  They were taken aback and then once they started discussing it they had picked up on the things I had tried to exaggerate. If I can do this, then why must they understand why I have made each thing? It is boring if the audience can understand every choice and decision - I much prefer to create work I want to create without worrying how it will be perceived. As long as there is some form of reaction and connection I think this is good, if they understand  my mind then great and if not then perhaps even better? Its not bad to be a mystery ; as long as people are interested enough to start discussing. This is something my classmates agreed with, they said mood and feeling is what is important.

 he video and audience reaction to the doll seeming more real than me reminded me of this scene in Stardust of the voodoo doll. I would like to further explore themes on control in puppets through simplified, over-exaggerated movement.

Rachel MacClean’s video work

I really like her work for how modern and absurd it looks. Her characters are often uncomfortable to watch and it seems like its own fantasy world. However her message is clear and political. She seems to be the absurd and and unknown as a way to exaggerate hat we are doing to society, as if we are out of touch with a ‘real world’. Im not sure I agree with his, although her work inspires me, I prefer work which celebrates the unknown as well as the known. I think humans are still ‘in touch’ with the world.

What I liked most was the visual extremity. Her films are vibrant and immersive. Some of her characters reminded me of ‘whoville’ from the grinch which I am very fond of. It is a peculiar look in which a person is still recognisable but it feels uncomfortable to refer to them as people.

Her work also reminds me strongly of the new film ‘Paradise Hills’ directed by Alice Waddington. In both the sets, costumes and editing carry an aesthetic of rich, current culture as a vibrant, almost sickly and tacky look. Also reminiscent of the capitalists in hunger games.

Rosie Gibbens is another artists whose performances in my opinion take on a similar aesthetic as well.

Her piece which really took me however was this one, where on one screen she is moving in the form of an animal, with bras attached to her to distort her usual body shape and on the right screen is a zoomed out birds eye view of her. I like this contrastof perspectives and although I do not care for what the point of the script, I like how it is written as an examination. The audience feels as if they are studying a creature, a puppet. 

Through researching artists I have learnt that visuals are very important when exploring this idea of the artificial and exaggeration. Whether this be costume, camera angles or literal visual examples of fake products.

In my tutorial notes Ellie wrote ‘Keep pushing your story-telling through film and explore how using even more different styles can contribute to the absurd worlds you’re building. It would be interesting to see different characters and storylines as different chapters to this work.’

Reading ‘the absurd worlds you’re building’ pleases me to know this is how the audience is viewing my work. I now wanter to continue to explore the fictional using exaggeration and the artificial as a way to do this.