Paul McCarthy, Damon McCarthy

93 min. English.

The intention of art as the act of rearranging the given, a voice of the encapsulation of what appears to be. DADDA – Poodle House Saloon is the first of five feature-length chapters made in the Saloon. These are part of a larger series of 20 feature-length chapters of CSSC / DADDA Coach Stage Stage Coach / Donald And Daisy Duck Adventure, a pseudo western series, a meditation on mediated violence. Over the course of the first film, Donald Duck, his wife Daisy Duck, their daughter Bonkers, Nancy Reagan, Andy Warhol, John Wayne, Mini, Heidi, Poncho, and the Cartwrights abuse, torture, and kill each other.
The saloon set used for DADDA – Poodle House Saloon is a replica of the set used in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1971 film Whity, which had also been used in the 1966 classic spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, starring Clint Eastwood. Today, the original set can still be found in Mini Hollywood, a wild-west town in Almería, Spain that American western movie directors used as a cheaper filming location in the 1960s and ‘70s. In recreating this set, a kind of cultural looping and layering occurred and is now embedded in DADDA – Poodle House Saloon.

Paul McCarthy, born in Salt Lake City, USA in 1945, earned a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969, and an MFA in multimedia, film, and art from the University of Southern California in 1973. His sculptures, performances, and videos mix high and low culture, and provoke an analysis of our fundamental beliefs. McCarthy’s work thus locates the traumas lurking behind the stage set of the American Dream and identifies their counterparts in the art historical canon. For 18 years he taught performance, video, installation, and art history in the New Genres Department at UCLA. His work has shown extensively worldwide.

Damon McCarthy, born in 1973 and raised Los Angeles, USA, earned a BA in film at the California Institute of the Arts in 1998. For the last 18 years, he has collaborated with his father, Paul McCarthy, as co-director and editor of many complex performative video installations and large-scale projects. Their collaborative works have been shown extensively worldwide.

Director's statement

Ownership of the saloon Donald and Daisy husband and wife doughtier daughter Bonkers knee sibling assent the business of fun fun foe all sad said the Italian lover fuckie man in comes the uncle Samson and three juiced juvenile drinks and the games begin began a West Wilde World they love fun passionately the piney penis dick boys of us Myer US summer through history a return to hell bound cycling round and round we go dead and born again dead again shot in the mouth put the pistol pillow in the mouth bang kick the can kick the doughtier kicked in the chin chin love love love move the cram a.m. cam camera up down an extended eye voyeurism death dead she shot him in the mouth he surely wanted to much sad pig said the to the do you like how I smell she said take a good sniff she said to the tv Johnny john she shat shat shifted shit porridge yum yum the boy wants what she has inside herself a dream his subverted desire it is his a death game dumb dumb inside idle dangle diddle who who in comes the boys we give you nothing at all we give you a dream money a job and more whore hour here whore for all its con conned contract stuff puff ball suck the duck frack fuckie no horse whore play drink drinks money swing door

Paul McCarthy, 2018

The Collaboration as It Is

The initial beginnings of an idea can come from a joke, a discussion over a long period of years or a flash moment. It can come from one of us, both of us or from someone else.
Paul writes the scripts and makes drawings from the scripts. The drawings are a type of storyboard. The script and the drawings are often played out and done as an action, often in character. Paul then rehearses the scripted actions with the collaborating performers. The rehearsals are a place where improvising can occur to find something unexpected. The rehearsals are recorded with a camera. During the actual shoot days Paul primarily directs the performers with Damon’s assistance, again improvising off the script is encouraged. Damon is primarily the one in charge of directing the cameras and editing. During the entire process it is an ongoing back and forth discussion. As Damon is editing, Paul goes on to the next project.
We are interested in extended long pieces, in a series format and also multi-channel viewing. The single channel pieces often have multi-channel version.
The process of doing overrides the need, or concern for the product. The pieces can be distributed in multiple arenas. One piece one set of ideas, leads into the next. Pieces often have a direct relationship and tend to overlap with one another. We try to work with the same artists/performers in multiple pieces.

Paul McCarthy, Damon McCarthy

Production Jaime Blauvelt, Damon McCarthy, Karen McCarthy. Production company McCarthy Studios (Los Angeles, USA). Directed by Paul McCarthy, Damon McCarthy. Screenplay Paul McCarthy. Cinematography Damon McCarthy, Eric Treml. Editing Damon McCarthy. Music Extended Organ. Sound design Damon McCarthy, Paul McCarthy. Sound Dean Lee. Production design Sean Townley. Costumes Moeko Maeda. Make-up Lancel Reyes. Casting Julia Kim. With Paul McCarthy (Donald Duck), Rachel Alig (Daisy Duck), Jennifer Daley (Bonkers), Kerry Wieder (Nancy Reagan), James Skinner (Andy Warhol), Honey Lauren (Ivana), Natasha Estrada (Heidi), Lillian Solange (Minnie), Jesse McBride (John Wayne), Jose de Jesus Martinez (Cowboy/Pancho), Bernhard Schütz (Ben Cartwright), Michael Villar (Hoss Cartwright), Dave Vescio (Adam Cartwright), Sebastian Fernandez (Little Joe Cartwright), Paul McDade (Bartender/Paul Ryan), Jack Spralja (Cowboy).

Films

Paul McCarthy (selection starting 2003): 2003: Bunker Basement (with Damon McCarthy, video installation), Piccadilly Circus (with Damon McCarthy, video installation), WGG Test (video installation). 2004: Documents Flicker Video (5 min.). 2005: Caribbean Pirates Houseboat Party (with Damon McCarthy, video installation), F-Fort Party WX Multi Channel (video installation), New Port (video installation, 25 min.), Parade, Haus Der Kunst, Garden, Munich Germany, Edit. 2006: Projection Room 1971-2006 (Stockholm) (video installation). 2007: Projection Room 1971-2007 (Ghent). 2008: Reversion (The Echo), Sound of Music (Upside Down and Backwards). 2012: Rebel Dabble Babble (video installation). 2013: White Snow (with Damon McCarthy, video installation). 2017: CSSC/DADDA Flicker, CSSC 2015-2017 (with Damon McCarthy, video installation), DADDA (with Damon McCarthy, video installation). 2018: Night Vater (with Damon McCarthy, video installation).

Damon McCarthy (selection): 2003: Bunker Basement (with Paul McCarthy, video installation), Piccadilly Circus (with Paul McCarthy, video installation). 2005: Caribbean Pirates Houseboat Party (with Paul McCarthy, video installation). 2013: White Snow (with Paul McCarthy, video installation). 2017: CSSC 2015-2017 (with Paul McCarthy, video installation), DADDA (with Paul McCarthy, video installation). 2018: Night Vater (with Paul McCarthy, video installation), DADDA – Poodle House Saloon.