BURPology: Harry Hill's TV Burp as Carnival. 

Soloshow by Anna FC Smith curated by Jo Guile and Nathalie Boobis

Coningsby Gallery London. January 2013.

32 Mesnes Street Wigan. March 2013.

Turnpike Gallery, Leigh. June 2013.

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This was an Arts Council England funded project in which Anna FC Smith explored Harry Hill’s TV Burp as a configuration of European Carnival (1300-1700)

Smith used watercolours, drawings and mixed folk media work, to define and spotlight components of TV Burp using a combination ofethnographic methods (drawing and watercolours) and selected folk media (papier-mâché sculptures, knitted works, thimbles and clay character pots). By creating these ethnographic studies and new folk artefacts, Smith invites us to re-examine the context in which we view TV Burp.

 Her sensitive and expressive two-dimensional works examine the action of the television show with the keen observation of an anthropologist. The three-dimensional pieces draw from the folk iconography of Naïve commemorative memorabilia. Collectively, they present TV Burp’s elements and key characters as rituals and archetypes, with relayed slapstick, distorted faces, and characterful expressions. The works purposefully retain and convey the humour and silliness of TV Burp; qualities that are integral to the very essence of a Carnival approach to life.

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 The exhibition playfully demonstrates how traditions repeatedly manifest in society. Smith encourages the viewer to reflect on their own responses to Hill’s parody of the world of television and to understand this unintentional carnival “born out of the traditions in the blood and moulded by the laughter of the audience”[1]as a continuation of a fluctuating folk institution. Accordingly, Smith highlights the enduring methods in which we humans engage and deal with our existence.

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 Accompanying the project there is a book of essays comparing the activities on the television programme, Harry Hill’s TV Burp, with the historic phenomena they relate to.