This past Fourth of July, I paraded through Takoma Park tugging a 7-foot-tall reverse mermaid created in the style of René Magritte. Friends joined me as part of the “Mermaid Brigade,” a troupe of Surrealist merrymakers holding signs with quotes from Salvador Dali and André Breton, and one reading “ce n’est pas un défilé,” an homage to Magritte’s The Treachery of Images.
In May, I received the “Weird and Wonderful” grant from the Takoma Parade Committee. Takoma Park is known as a quirky city that embraces the bizarre, and this grant encourages new and different entries to keep the long-running parade fresh.
I’d long been thinking of René Magritte’s The Collective Invention, an eerie painting featuring a creature with human legs and a fish body. Previously, I’d made a leg sculpture in my yard. I’ve also made several fish from recycled materials. A reverse mermaid sculpture was a natural next step.
I submitted a grant request and proposed the reverse mermaid sculpture as a centerpiece for a parade entry. I thought for sure this was too strange even for Takoma Park, but I was pleasantly surprised when the committee said, “Yes.” This gave me a budget for supplies and a deadline, both key factors in bringing this project to fruition.
Once I had the sculpture underway, I started to envision the actual parading aspect. I realized that putting the sculpture in motion would create structural integrity challenges, and this impacted the materials I used for the piece.
I realized walking on my own would not be fun for me or my audience. Also, I wanted others around to help keep the mermaid sculpture upright on the steep hills and over bumps in the road.
Luckily, I found some fellow oddballs to join me, some in costume, all embracing the Surrealist theme of the Magritte-inspired reverse mermaid parade entry. Also, I made a new friend who happens to run an entertainment company and had a full set of rolling speakers and mixing equipment to give our group a soundtrack.
I’m grateful to the parade committee for supplying a reason and resources for me to create this sculpture. Also, I’m grateful to the Mermaid Brigade for joining me on the parade route. I will remember marching with that strange group of friends long after the reverse mermaid has disintegrated.
You can see the entire process video here.
