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Wretched Sister Installation Video

Wretched Sister is a character who experiences all life events as calamities, which "coincidentally" on the exact same day as tabloid-worthy catastrophes. The character appears as if cut-out from bright construction paper, but the issues are serious: child abuse, elder abuse, self-abuse, and assault. The "coincidences" demonstrate the ways tabloid events shape our ordinary lives.

  • Andrea Bass
    Artist/Director
  • Andrea Bass
    Music
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short, Student, Other
  • Genres:
    art film, animation, child abuse, elder abuse, assault, current events, catastrophes, calamities
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • La Femme du Futur
    Paris
    France
    March 2, 2019
    Art Exhibition La Femme du Futur at Gallerie Mémoire de l'Avenir
Director Biography

Andrea Bass Bio

My art practice is an unabashedly personal representation of feminism and femaleness, filtered through pop media, my prior corporate marketing career, and intensive NYC parenting. This work includes digital art, assemblage, video, poetry, and fiction in the form of graphic novels.

I completed my MFA in Studio Art at The City College of New York in 2018. My solo thesis show: "(Ms.) Understandings of Feminism" visually embraced hypocrisies, catastrophes, tropes, expectations, affectations, and clichés of having-it-all.

After graduation, I was accepted into the October 2018 L'Air FIAP Jean Monnet Paris Residency. In March 2019, my work Wretched Sister Installation Video was selected for the group show "La Femme du Futur" at Galerie Mémoire de l'Avenir in Paris. A still from this film (portraying a man attacking a woman with a screwdriver) appeared on the front page of the publication Arts Hebdo Médias.

Since September, 2019, my visual "All Hands on Deck" has appeared as public art on 24-foot long flood barriers in the South Street Seaport neighborhood in NYC. In the US, venues including Grand Central Terminal Gallery, The Every Woman Biennial, The Invisible Dog Art Center, Local Project ArtSpace (LIC), Rockaway! /MOMA PS1, The New Britain Museum of Art, and Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Collective have exhibited my art.

I self-published my zine, Wretched Sister: Calamities of the 1970s-2000s in 2019.
My poem 3 Blues Songs about Facebook was published in The Offbeat, a literary journal of Michigan State University in spring, 2017.

Prior to engaging full-time in art, I was employed as a corporate marketer for 20+ years. After amassing sufficient (funds and) life-experience to produce worthy content, I began thinking of myself as an artist in 2014.

I live in New York City. I sublet studio space at The Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn.

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Director Statement

Andrea Bass Artist Statement

Funny, But Not Funny

I create highly visible graphic energy, irony, and humor in my work, but the themes are serious: marginalization of women, assault, child abuse, elder abuse, and colorism.

As visual dramaturge, I cast real and invented characters to convey narrative. My techniques are analog and digital, including assemblage, printing, drawing, video, and painting. My fictional character/avatar Wretched Sister (WS) experiences life events as calamities, which "coincidentally" occur on the same exact date as tabloid catastrophes, merging two seemingly unrelated incidents into one time slot. (Like the way we always remember where we were on 9/11). My animated character "Katty" demonstrates the upshot of extreme jealousy.

I employ Barbies as stand-ins for me and other contemporary females. As the world's most popular toy ever, Barbie represents not just impossible shapeliness, but also the aspirations of 20th and 21st century women. Before Barbie, there were "baby" dolls, forcing girls into "mother" roles. Barbie can undertake any career (after a change in clothes).

Despite the horrors of violence, with bright visuals and deadpan narrator text, my juxtapositions offer uncanny incongruities. In other words, despite the hateful subject matter, I try to be amusing if possible.