Bread, Mascots & Heroes

A project for the Socrates Sculpture Park exhibition LIC, NYC
May 6 – August 6, 2007 (in Long Island City, NY)

Silvercup Studios, a film and television production facility company in Long Island City was formerly the Silvercup Bread Factory. Here a large scale zoetrope—a pre-cinematic animation toy—shows animations developed from the history of Silvercup. The piece pays tribute to the history of Silvercup and to the transition of the neighborhood from an industrial enclave to a mixed neighborhood with many creative businesses while it also highlights the physical process of animation and film. Viewers experience the persistence-of-vision that makes film possible only if they take the step of turning the very large and heavy steel drum that makes up the zoetrope. Apparently, the first productions to take place at Silvercup Studios were shot in the flour silo room.

Two animations were shown during the summer. The first one featured The Lone Ranger with his horse Silver (Silvercup Bread Factory was a primary sponsor of the television show) and Tony Soprano, next to three ducks frolicking in his pool—an event which precipitates Tony’s blackouts and subsequent foray into therapy (the HBO series The Sopranos is made at Silvercup Studios). Tony Soprano, as an American hero, cuts a much more complex and ambiguous figure than the Lone Ranger. The second animation showed a loaf of bread rising and then exploding plus loaves of bread riding around on an assembly line.

Thanks

Socrates Sculpture Park, Alyson Baker, DYAD Studio [Douglas Fanning] & Mivision [Patrick Luangkhot] with Ryan Pauly, James Shay, Cecile Moochnek, Steve Smith, Kevin Sudeith, Deborah Fisher, Michelle Higa, Image King, Prelinger Archive, Greater Astoria Historical Society