The Badger Series – Paul Tarragó

Canteen Gallery 2 FlatScreen

A cycle of eight short videos broadcasting intermittently throughout Spring/Summer 2010.

The Badger Series plays within the familiar format of an imagined children’s television show. Mr Paul and his household menagerie of puppets explore the big issues of existence with the inquisitive sincerity of a learning programme.

Trailer – Episodes 5 to 8 of the Badger Series from Paul A Tarrago on Vimeo.

Episode 1:
The sight of a model skeleton unearths a memory in the Badger that he has repressed all these years, prompting him to ask some pretty tricky questions about life, death and self-sacrifice. (11.5 mins)
Episode 2:
The Badger and the Squirrel relay the world through a lens. (9.5 mins)
Episode 3:
A sudden dilemma, a plummet of spirits and the necessity of rallying round. (13.5 mins)
Episode 4:
Extended dream sequence intended as a balance for the weightier themes of Episode 3. (6.5 mins)
Episode 5:
A surprise visitor in the garden sets the household to thinking about their origins. (14.5 mins)
Episode 6:
Back to nature after a glut of technology, which leads to discussions of Henry David Thoreau, sexuality, and a moral dilemma. (13.5 mins)
Episode 7:
Whilst making a public information film the household becomes fascinated by a prop microscope and the window it opens onto the world of microbes. (11 mins)
Episode 8:
The story behind Gustav the Dancing Robot and a consideration of identity and belonging. Book Club title: Frankenstein. (12 mins)

Paul Tarragó is a London based artist-filmmaker working in both video and celluloid. Meta-fictional in nature, his work experiments with the familiar language and narrative of film. Tarragó has previously exhibited in UK and International venues including South London Gallery, Brooklyn Museum of Art, ArtSway, CCA Glasgow, Pompidou Centre (Paris), Moscow International Film Festival and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin).

Programmed all the year round with new or seminal work from artists working with moving image, FlatScreen is the digital plane in Gallery Two that allows us to move fast and react to new possibilities.