OnExhibit
The art film makes a statement about more than just the fast-food chain.
Leaving us with a flood of questions
IMAGES FROM SUPERFLEX by Michael O’Sullivan There’s a moment in “Flooded McDon-
ald’s,” a mesmerizing 21-minute film on continuous loop in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s Black Box theater, when you might think about regime change. Set in what looks like a hastily abandoned McDonald’s — half-eaten bur- gers and knocked-over french fry contain- ers litter the tables — the movie watches as water slowly fills the room, first lifting and then knocking over a statue of Ronald Mc- Donald. With its arm raised in the air, the figure looks, for all the world, like the stat- ue of Saddam Hussein that was toppled af- ter the 2003 fall of Baghdad. That’s just one of many associations you might make while watching the evocative film, made in 2009 by the art collective Su- perflex. Together since 1993, the three-man group consists of former Copenhagen art school pals Jakob Fenger, Bjornstjerne Reuter Christiansen and Rasmus Nielsen. Previous works, which typically address themes of consumerism and the environ- ment, include an initiative to help Thai pig farmers convert excrement into market- able fuel and a kind of art prank that had customers at convenience stores suddenly — and inexplicably — informed that their entire purchase would be free. “Flooded McDonald’s” is equally sly and socially conscious, a cautionary tale that’s scary without being scolding. The source of the rising water is never explained. Is it a flash flood? A broken water main? Indus- trial sabotage? Act of God? And where have all the customers and staff run off to? Fries still sizzle in the fat of the deep fryer, near pots of coffee waiting on warmers, but the people seem to have fled — or been vapor- ized — in some apocalyptic scenario.
The whole thing is weirdly beautiful and calm — a sci-fi thriller about the end of the world as we know it. The critique of McDonald’s is obvious, but not heavy-handed. Though shot at times like an advertisement, and at others with all the suspense of a disaster flick, the film takes a dim view of the restaurant chain. No corporate sins are ever laid out. Still, nutritionally, environmentally and economically, McDonald’s is cast in a skep- tical — if not downright negative — light. By the end of the movie, the food- and trash-filled waters, now several feet deep — resemble a dirty toilet, or the contents of an omnivore’s gut. Wrappers and cups mix with furniture and disintegrating food and sugary soda in swirling murky, gray soup. The flood seems at once a kind of biblical punishment and an unavoidable accident. But it’s in our nature to seek blame. Is Mc- Donald’s (or, by extension, agribusiness) at fault for rising seas levels? Is God angry with us, as some have suggested about Hurricane Katrina and other natural dis- asters? Superflex seems to suggest the finger of blame shouldn’t point to some faceless “them,” or to a divine, wrathful Him, but to us and our unthinking appetites.
osullivanm@washpost.com
BLACK BOX: SUPERFLEX
Through Nov. 28 at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW (Metro: L’Enfant Plaza). 202-633-1000.
www.hirshhorn.si.edu. Hours: Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission: Free.
THE STORY BEHIND THE WORK In “Flooded McDonald’s,” we watch as a seemingly abandoned restaurant slowly fills with water.
GALLERY TALK On Saturday at 5 p.m., painter B.G. Muhn discusses “Love Affair of the Empress,” an exhibit of portraits of mythical Chinese empresses at the American University Museum.
www.american.edu/cas/museum. Free.
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“Flooded McDonald’s” may be set in a fast-food restaurant, but it was filmed in a swimming pool in Bangkok. The realistic props are handmade.
You’ll see a long list of credits at the end of “Flooded McDonald’s,” but a special thanks to the fast-food giant isn’t among them.
Made without the sanction of the company, the movie only looks like it was shot in a real McDonald’s. With the exception of the food, which is real, every single prop and piece of the set — from the food trays and trash bins to the cash registers, restaurant signage and Happy Meal toys — was handmade, in a remarkable evocation of the real thing. The set itself is a life-size mock-up of a smallish McDonald’s,
complete with illuminated golden arches that sputter out as they become submerged. It took two weeks to build the fake
restaurant in an empty swimming pool in a Bangkok film studio, and two more days to flood it with 80,000 liters of water (recycled, environmentalists will be relieved to hear). The whole thing was surprisingly free of technical headaches, according to the members of Superflex. From the first idea for the project to the first public screening, “Flooded McDonald’s” was a mere four months in the making.
osullivanm@washpost.com
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
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