Joyland Books

Saturday 2 December - Channel 4 - 8 pm till 8 30 pm - (Videoplus Code : 3289)

A Documentary about the building and destruction of Antony Gormley's 25-metre high sculpture, Waste Man.

p.s. If anyone misses taping/watching this and is interested drop me a PM, I can probably sort something out so you can watch it!

On 30 September 2006, Antony Gormley's Waste Man was burned to the ground in front of an audience of thousands in the seaside town of Margate. Constructed entirely of the detritus of modern consumer society – planks of wood, tables, chairs, keyboards, paintings, dartboards, a front door, toilet seats - the 25m high man took over four weeks to construct by Gormley, his assistant, a team of professional riggers and a small army of enthusiastic volunteers from Margate. The building and burning of the Waste Man will form a definitive part of Penny Woolcock's epic film, Exodus, a modern retelling of the biblical story of Exodus exploring themes of identity, migration and great movements of people across the globe.

Waste Man, filmed and directed by Caroline Deeds, follows the building of Gormley’s creation and explores the relationship between this small seaside community and the building of a work from an internationally acclaimed artist.

Editor: Emiliano Battista, Producer: Ruth Kenley-Letts, Executive Producer: Michael Morris



Email i got the other day

I got this recorded successfully, so if anyone missed it and wants to see it then send me a PM.

The Thanet Extra this week highlighted the fact that there is considerable local anger that the film-makers had selected the thickest possible interviewees in an apparent attempt to make Margate appear to be a town inhabited entirely by half-arsed dim-witted retards, and this was something my wife and I both noticed and commented on as we watched the television programme, several days before the Extra mentioned it.

Quite what their motive was is beyond me...

Vince et al,

Having managed to totally miss this broadcast last Saturday as I went to see my Dad, and was oblivious to the TV schedules, I'd probably have to say the local representation owed something to the current "dumbing down" of TV trends. Shame though, as I thought Channel 4 still made the occasional quality items to broadcast.

Ironically for me, I noticed the TV guide in last Saturday's Daily Mirror had a nice Waste Man picture under their "Telly Choice" column with a "new" tag to accompany it. On a normal weekend I would have likely seen that and set my recorder accordingly.

Porf - on that subject is it possible to upload the programme to this website or maybe "YouTube" it to save having to send people copies? - just a thought. I was annoyed to have missed the show.

Martin

Here are some quotes from the Thanet Extra Friday December 8- apologies it's only an extract but I can't find the article online and my typing is so poor that if I attempted to copy the lot I would be here until Christmas.

Willow (Willow Cairn, one of the artists behind the project) said "This was an historic event by an internationally known artist, but Channel 4 had a definite agenda to portray this project and the people of Margate in a negative light"

Resident Rupert Stephens said "I was appalled by the representation of our town, as populated by gurning old fools, and it didn't even show the artists in a good light. It was a muddled and poorly explained concept that even now people don't understand"

Damn, I can't believe I missed this, it serves me right for not visiting this site for a couple of weeks *slaps hand*.

Would it be ok if someone could maybe upload it somewhere or something?

It sounds a bit of a shame they have made Margate look like that, I find it odd that Channel 4 would do something like that.