Change Your Image
torpedoboy4
Hancock received a BFA from Texas A&M University, Commerce, Texas and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia. Hancock makes prints, drawings, and collaged felt paintings which tell stories of a fantastical nature.
The characters which populate his imaginary worlds include the Mounds, half-animal, half-plant creatures, which are preyed upon by evil beings called vegans. The usual meaning of the word vegan is a human who avoids leather, meat, milk and other products considered by the vegan lifestyle to be unethical, but in Trenton Doyle Hancock's work these people with their ethical lifestyle are merely being used by these "vegan" creatures.
Reviews
Gigglesnort Hotel (1976)
Weird
I loved tuning in to this show as a child, but it was always a little creepy. This show was set in a hotel lobby. There was but one (non puppet)human character in the series and I believe he was the series creator. The puppets were so grotesque, to put it lightly. They for-shadowed those sick looking puppets from Britain's "Spitting Image" series. There was also a sense of palpable tension in the air in the hotel. It's like the puppets were on the very edge of becoming human. There was a depressed clay "mound" named Blob. He was hilarious and in definite need of Prozak. There were apes that fell in love, space aliens, an old couple, and a chain-smoking dragon. It was like an even lower production Sid and Marty Kroft type of a show. And to top it off there was a bell hop named "Weird". This show was a big influence on me and my artwork and still manages to disturb the hell out of me.
Trenton Doyle Hancock
Pretty Things (2005)
An exercise in self indulgence
This movie felt very "grad school" to me. Or even a therapy session. Goldwyn has a lot to learn as a documentarian. Why oh why did she feel the need to show herself so much? If she had only focused the camera on the actual dancers, then we would have gotten an even fuller picture of burlesque history. It would have also been really great to see more of a correlation between sexual and government politics of the era. The archival footage of these beautiful proud women was stunning. When the actual dancers spoke, I was amazed, especially by Zorita and her bluntness. When the film-maker spoke, I cringed. With every word she spoke I knew there was that much more time stolen from the dancers' spotlight. For Christ's sake, when this was filmed, the clock was ticking loudly for these poor women. Didn't Goldwyn understand the sense of urgency to tell their stories as thoroughly as possible? These women were so elderly, and a few died before the film even saw the light of day. Instead of an exploration into the full richness of their lives, we got Goldwyn's failed attempts to be sexy. The film wasn't all bad though. It articulated that pseudo-grace cannot be substituted for god-given grace, even when they wear the same clothes.