SFX: twiddly, dainty sound — lots of reverb, placing us in a strange world, like inside a music box
NARRATOR (as if she’s just walking up to it):
That’s a cute little frame. Roses and twirls. My Grandma had one like that. Sweet.
SFX: twiddly sound “melts” under narration and warps into something dark and disturbing
NARRATOR:
Okay, maybe sweet is not the word. I wonder if this was this some kind of Victorian mirror in a past life …?
SFX: glass cracking, exploding in shards
NARRATOR:
Okay, never mind. Let me look at the label. Who made this? Meret Oppenheim. Hmmm. Makes sense. I have a vague recollection that he was into Surrealism.
FEMALE VOICE:
Sheeeeee
NARRATOR:
She?
FEMALE VOICE:
Sheeeee
NARRATOR:
Oh, right. Meret Oppenheim was a woman. And according to the label, she named this Miss Gardenia.
FEMALE VOICE:
Exquissssssite … ssssssssubversive
FEMALE VOICE:
Snarl
NARRATOR:
I guess I should say “her,” not “it.” That shape in the center is definitely … female.
FEMALE VOICE (whispers, eerie, subliminal, echoey):
Exquissssssite … ssssssssubversive
NARRATOR:
Those legs make her look almost alive.
SFX: Surrealist music/sounds that make no sense bubble to the surface
NARRATOR:
I could definitely use some help here. I need one of those Mary Poppins fairy godmothers, but, like, an art expert.
FEMALE VOICE:
Whitney Chadwick
NARRATOR:
Whitney Chadwick?
CHADWICK:
Miss Gardenia is one of my favorite Surrealist objects. It is so exquisite and so subversive.
FEMALE VOICE:
Whitney Chadwick
NARRATOR:
Whitney help me out here, what is going on?
CHADWICK:
Miss Gardenia suggests a flower. And the gardenia, that flower that’s so easily bruised, so absolutely beautiful and perfect, until you touch it, and then it’s suddenly brown and wilting around the edges.
SFX: soundbed melts until glass shatters
CHADWICK:
Just let go of preconceptions. Let go of assumptions about what a work of art should look like and think about the possibilities of what might be suggested by the work. What does it suggest to you? What does it remind you of? Does it take you to places inside yourself, as well as in the external world?
FEMALE VOICE:
Exquissssssite … ssssssssubversive
