I’m a huge fan of horror and how it manipulates the viewer into being frightened. One of the things I find fightening is the imitation of the human form through the inanimate – namely the scarecrow. I’ve been exploring how the humble scarecrow can become something menacing in the eye of the beholder and how popular culture has played its part in reinforcing this fear.

“No eye hath seen such Scarecrows” (William Shakespeare)

Imagine walking down a deserted country road and it leads you to a field.  A deserted field that has no other people in it.  As you look around, the only other living   notice that there is another being in the field with you.  Take a closer look and the being appears to have a human form, is quite dishevelled, and appears awake and staring into the distance. 

Scarecrows can be dated back to medieval times, which reflect a time of darkness and fear. An effective way to scare away birds, they have also been associated with mysticism and rituals.

In Japan there are remote villages which have communities of scarecrows, amd the figures are posed to look like regular members of scociety. These villages have become isolated and remote due to an ageing population, therefore reflecting a changed society. The scarecrows are made as a memory to the residents who once lived there, almost making the village a reincarnation of its former self, the people now gone but replaced with a replica or a double of them.

So I’m eager to explore how the impact of horror works to make an inanimate object like a scarecrow into something sinister and creepy. I think that there is a combination of three factors at wrok here – the use of the human characteristic of the figures, the isolation in which the forms are set and the invisible third party who put the figures in the field. These three factors work together to make something inanimate into something weird and eerie.

the human characteristic

The human form is recognisable to us all – it acts as a reflection of our own being. Scarecrows are made to resemble the human form. Often put in submissive positions – tied with arms outstreched almost resembling a crucifixion, the figure appears as a captive, forced to carry out its task.

If I compare this image with that of another image humans dressed as scarecrows, it can be seen how different the intention is in how they are perceived.

isolation

Horror uses isolation to increase tension – there is no-one going to help you as there is nobody around. This introduces a feeling of being totally alone and at the mercy of what you are afraid of. This scene from Jeepers Creepers 2 of a young boy running from a scarecrow-like demon is truly terrifying. The figure in the background is menacing next to the expanse of the corn in the field which gives a claustrophobic atmosphere.

the third party

The third party works to be the person or group of people responsible. I think this is best illustrated in the movie, The Wickerman, where a whole township work together to entrap a policeman visiting the island in order to burn him as a sacrifice. The use of the scarecrow-like structure in which he will be sacrificed is constructed by the third party and is the emblem of the burning.

instilling the eerie into artwork

One of the reasons I watch horror movies as research is to find out what makes a scene or action eerie or frightening. Horror is a double edged sword – when it’s overdone it can become almost comedic. I’ve found that the most everyday scenarios are the most frightening as they lead the viewer into believing that this could really happen to them. If true horror is the everyday, then all everyday situations can be made into something horrific. It’s a matter of balance when trying to instil this feeling into my artwork. One of the ways I have used the research to inform my practice is to take an idea that should be unthreatening like a scarecrow but then take advantage of the doubt placed in people’s minds though the horror movie to make the viewer think that there is something not quite right with the things they are looking at.

In my piece of work, Myspace, this has been exaggerated by the incompletion of the bodies, the disproportion of the figures and the fact that they are represented as children.