Part of Fall 2010
UK artist Paul Tarragó’s 8-part video Paul and the Badger (2005 — 9) will screen as a serial throughout the fall, with episodes preceding each screening of the season.
Recasting a glove puppet TV show through his own present-day sensibilities, Paul assumes the role of kindly uncle mentor to a household of capersome woodland creatures. Mortality, self-sacrifice, depression, altered states of consciousness and transgressive art practices are all explored as part of their everyday lives together. Meanwhile, the show is mindful to adhere to the traditional structural formulae, with entertainment numbers and routines appropriate to the scaled-down sitcom world that they occupy. The series is equal parts moral instruction and narrative play, mediated through the forced fit of an experimental filmmaker as children’s entertainer.
