‘I think I’m maybe a trivial person in a serious world…’
The home of Robin Ash in Eggbuckland, England overflows with album covers that most people would find ugly, distasteful and often both. His collection of kitschy and campy album art from decades past includes such imaginative, perhaps regrettable images as a person in a gorilla suit playing accordion, a pop-up nativity scene and, for unclear reasons, the Bee Gees dressed in medieval garb as one of them holds a black moulded jelly. Although Ash savours the silly in these images, his passion for their peculiar displays of creativity is clearly one of genuine embrace rather than ironic detachment. The short documentary Sometimes Surface follows Ash as he searches for the record that accompanies his all-time favourite album cover – the easy listening/big band group Ray Ellis and his Orchestra’s Ellis in Wonderland (1957), which, of course, features an appropriately punny set of down-the-rabbit-hole costumes. Through his portrait, the US director Paul Szynol captures Ash’s joy in collecting and his bone-dry sense of humour, giving a view of his quiet life and quaint hobby in a rapidly changing world.
Director: Paul Szynol
video
Personality
A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law
5 minutes
video
Gender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
video
Consciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
video
Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes
video
Art
Radical doodles – how ‘exquisite corpse’ games embodied the Surrealist movement
15 minutes
video
Home
How an artist transformed a dilapidated hunting lodge into a house made of dreams
8 minutes
video
Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
10 minutes