THE PARROT

I am basing my spectacle on the Scarlet Macaw parrot, which is arguably the most recognisable parrot. Most parrot costumes I have seen are clearly based on this particular breed of parrot, which is most noticeable because of its bright red, yellow and blue colours. My more successful spectacles are more curvaceous in their pattern (the shrimp/domesticated spectacle), and a curved or wobbly edge would resemble the wings and feathers of a parrot. The basic form will be a poncho, with the uppermost ‘wing’ stitched shut so I can put my hands in and flap without people seeing my hands. The addition of a hood means that, like all my spectacles, my senses will be obscured, but I have the option to easily move around if I choose too. I only want to suggest a parrot, so I am not worried about it being particularly true to real life. In all my drawings, the beak covers the entire face and I want to stay as true to my drawings as possible. The fact that I am making the beak this large and sticking to 3 colours, highlights the fact that I am exaggerating its main features, and not staying true to a typical parrot.

The stitching on this spectacle - particularly on the hood - is not the neatest, as my sewing machine kept pulling and it took me a long time to figure out why. At first I was frustrated as I thought that because you could se some of the yellow underneath the sequin it would ruin the spectacle, but I realised that it is not the details that people will notice it is the spectacle as a whole. When I feel like this about a piece of work it is good to remember Fischli and Weiss's work, who are quite amateur in their processes, which is a strength as it keeps the work playful. For the beak, I am using expanding foam in a cardboard mould, as it is lightweight and I will be able to wear it for long periods of time on my face without it suffocating me or weighing me down. The foam is also easy to shape as it can be sawn and sanded if the foam overflows out of the mould. I had thought about painting it a bright yellow and making it really bold, similar to the rest of the piece, but I think the beak needs to be 'normal' coloured, in order to keep the resemblance of a the macaw. The ridiculousness of this spectacle will come from the exaggeration of the colour and size of the beak. Before I painted I did a thin layer of paper mache, so that the paint would not soak into the foam. When I painted it some of the paper started peeling and flapping but as with the trees, the fact that my processes and construction are visible only adds to the spectacle.