The Wrestling Memoirs

I've been doing a spot of historical reading into Mexican wrestling to gain insight into the significance of masks. Originally they were just a method of distinguishing wrestlers and originated from Aztec ideas. In recent years they have become a means of developing a character. Many masks now depict Gods, Animals and other Archetypes through colour and shape, rather than being obviously, say, a lion's head.

The masks play a huge role within 'Lucha Libra' (Spanish for 'Free-fighting') There is a tradition of wrestlers being unmasked in final bouts or final tours to signify that the wrestler will be retiring. The loss of mask amounts to a 'loss of character'. This is something which will be incorporated in some way into my video/performance.

I've been looking closely at, in wrestling terms, 'Kayfabe' which describes the portrayal of events within wrestling as being 'real' rather than staged. Ie, feuds, rivalries, storylines and the fighting involved. Wrestlers maintain kayfabe within the ring, at shows and also outside of the shows maintaining their character. This is certainly something I wish to exploit within my video.

I'm saying video... But I see the final outcome consisting of video, sound, performance and interaction. Possibly inspired by the works of Don Ritter, who creates installations that react to user participation.
View this: http://aesthetic-machinery.com/voxpopuli.html

I'm possibly thinking of holding various press-conference style interviews as a means of performance art at different times over the course of the final exhibition to continue the idea of Kayfabe and to appear alongside the video. Obviously this will mean me donning wrestling attire and taking my performance of being a wrestler to a live audience. Which could make the art interactive. possibly a Q and A type session twice daily.

More ideas to follow...

I got up this morning and left the house at 5:30 to take Helen to the airport. As soon as I returned home I started looking (listening) at wrestler's theme music. My fictional wrestler needs some too to continue to build upon his character....

Here are a few examples of wrestler's entrance music that I like, mainly because they add to the character's overall personality:



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And so after listening to these at 6:00 am I started creating my own using Fruityloops Studio XL... It's by no means complete but you get a rough idea...

The music so far sounds like this:
Click on the speaker on this page Vibecat.com
Please let me know what you think!?

:D

After various ideas have been popping up and floating around my head, I thought that the best way to keep a record was to post them to a blog.

My idea this year revolves heavily around the theme of Wrestling.

Around two months back, I saw the film 'The Wrestler' starring Mickey Rourke. The film itself has easily become my favourite film. It has become the main reason why this year I want to create a film. Possibly as an installation.

Below is Bruce Springsteen's 'The Wrestler' the soundtrack to the film, accompanied by many a powerful image used within the film. Enjoy.



My original idea for the film, would be to shoot a kind of 'mock'umentary following a few days in the life of a dillusional man who believes he has been a Mexican wrestler for around two decades, whose career has been ended prematurely. The idea was that this now middle-aged nobody is living his dream through memories that never actually happened. The camera would just follow him around his home carrying out his daily routines still wearing his mexican wrestling mask which he probably bought from some geek shop. As for his house, it would be a typical OAP's heaven. Floral wallpaper, floral furniture. But every now and then, subtle hints at his Mexican wrestling career; cactus here and there, picture of a chihauha etc.

My idea changed:
I then thought about the personal life of other celebrity type figures: A failed rockstar, a drag queen cabaret act, a ventriloquist, and an artist. I thought about putting all these, along with the wrestler in a kind of 'come dine with me' style film:



This would enable a few actors to really play the part of each character, ad-libbing, really getting into their character's role. It would give opportunity to go to town with the celebrities houses, what food they would cook etc.

I then had this crazy idea...
Contact a few wrestling schools/promotions and try and spend a week living as a wrestler to compile documentary type footage of myself wrestling to be used as memories/cut scenes for an elderly retired wrestler who will be the star of the video, talking about his life as a wrestler.

I have an idea to turn this film into an installation piece... will write more about that soon.

So basically spend a week doing this: