Susan Hiller

4 synchronised video projections, quadrophonic sound.

"Susan Hiller's An Entertainment, 1990 - four video projectors and sound in a square room - is 26 minutes long, during which huge coloured images... are thrown against the wall; the soundtrack evokes a seaside audience as well as the murderous doings of Mr. Punch with his thrusting nose; entertainment clichés ("Oh yes he is! Oh no he isn't!") are menacingly intoned. Memories of Edward Munch and James Ensor... and the cruel caricatures of Regency London all spring to mind in Hiller's absorbing disquition on ritual and myth, vicious comedy, violence and death. The brutality of what passes for entertainment still erupts in London life, and Hiller has unnervingly traced one of its histories."

Richard Shone, Artforum, 1995

I was told to look at this due to the use ideas towards Punch and Judy. Punch and Judy is funny when your younger. But it is about beating up your wife, becoming the devil, intended to provoke shocked laughter.

susan Hiller uses this in her work ' An entertainment'. Looking at themes such as myth, ritual, death. Again, sadly i wasnt able to go to this installation and i think this is a huge part of the work, just like all art i guess. From her work, i also looked at some work by James Ensor.

His faces depict those in the Italian themes puppetry street performances, The Pupi-Sicilliani, Fratelli Pasqualino. His characters seem very surreal wearing masks that actually look like it is their faces. The colours suit the theme, quite sickly but fun. Humorous but terrifying. they all look at you and the style of painting feels dream-lie, not real. It is like they are laughing at you.