SAVAGE PROGRESS is more than a Tumblr, its a collage, its hypnosis. Coming across SAVAGE PROGRESS was like finding a time portal. Cara France lives in the UK, graduated from university and makes art films. One scroll on her page and you can tell she is an artist. She graciously agreed to do an interview. Here is how it went:
SARAH: I found your Tumblr and was really amazed by both its movement and its images, as you scroll down its like watching a film. Each image brings something new but also references those before it. What is your thought process when composing SAVAGE PROGRESS. What do you look for in an image?
CARA: That’s such a tough question, it seems like quite a natural process, I just go for images that make me feel like, Woah! What the Hell! Images that you want to keep looking at and going back to. I’ve been amazed by some of the things I’ve found on here to reblog, some images, I just have to know where they are from and it's often lead me to watch movies or get into artists that I never would have heard of otherwise. The process itself is quite OCD, as sometimes I put a load of images up and if they don’t ‘feel’ right, I will just delete them all. Colour is really important to me also, and I noticed recently my tumblr is becoming increasingly lilac and lurid green.
S: So you live in the UK and you make films, What are your favorite films? Directors? Are there any artists that specifically inspire you?
C: There really are too many to list! A friend recently asked me for film recommendations and I ended up giving him and enormous list in chronological order. If I was forced to name favourite films Altered States, From Beyond, Society, Tetsou:Ironman, and Videodrome, would all be up there. Actually all early Cronenberg is amazing, and a french film called Possession from 1981 that I can’t believe I only saw this year that is one of the darkest most visceral films I’ve ever seen. When I was at uni I was really into Expanded Cinema, and experimental films from the 1960’s, those kinds of films that open your third eye like Tony Conrad's ‘Flicker’ and also Soviet Sci-Fi animation, post apocalyptic stuff that is bleak and brutal. But recently I’ve just been watching crappy cyberpunk and trashy cyborg movies like Death Machine, Hardware, Nemesis and the Trancers series, movies about virtual reality, cops from the future and getting sucked into the TV - i love crap like that, especially when it has proper old special FX and bad CGI. Art-wise at the moment I am totally into french comic book artists Philippe Druillet and Jean Giraud Moebius, and surrealists Zdzisław Beksiński and Hans Bellmer, their work always gives me goosebumps, they make those kind of eerie images that stay with you.
S: There is a lot of imagery that references sci-fi or mysticism. Also a lot of nostalgic images. Are you influenced by films or shows you saw as a child?
C: Oh yes, I think everyone is massively influenced by stuff they see when they are a kid. Kids toys and TV in the 80’s and 90’s is enough to warp anyone for life! Things like Mysterious Cities of Gold, Jayce And The Wheeled Warriors, Knightmare, Round The Twist. Also hiring out movies from the video-store on school holidays, I used to watch Flight Of The Navigator on a loop, that part when the kids head is full of star charts still makes me feel weird now. When I was 11 we got cable TV, so 90’s Nickelodeon shows, and MTV Oddities have definitely had a bearing on the stuff I am into now.
S: If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, fictional or real...Who would it be?
C: No question, Jack Deth. We could chat about sub-humanoids in a sleazy diner.
S: Why did you start working on this tumblr?
C: I always collected images, and before tumblr I used to use flickr for similar stuff. I use it as an online scrapbook, a reminder of all the things I’ve been looking at or movies I’ve been watching, its like a visual mind map so everyone can take a look inside my brain, and wander about in there.
S: Who are your fashion icons?
C: Clarissa Darling, Lydia Lunch, Jennifer Herrema, Liz Bougatsos, Kate Bush(that's her!)