Alexandre Louvenaz’ animation literally craps on home makeover TV shows

Date
30 June 2017

Animator and computer artist Alexandre Louvenaz has created Home Makeover for Adult Swim, a satirical and bizarre take on the classic American home makeover TV shows. The animation is part of Adult Swim’s Etcetera section, where a whole host of other weird and wonderful films sit. “I really love what they do. They give the chance for people like us to make cool, different things,” says Alexandre.

With free rein, the animator looked to the popular home makeover TV shows for inspiration. “I’ve always had a strange feeling about these TV shows and it’s also a joke I had with my ex-girlfriend, because we found that they put flat screens everywhere (kids rooms, toilets, garages, jacuzzis). It’s strange because that isn’t what people really need at the beginning,” he says. “So I tried to imagine a ‘normal family’ who doesn’t seem to need help in appearance but who have a totally shitty and boring life in contrast.”

Instead of a regular DIY team, it’s worms that descend of the family’s property, and they have a “non-conformist vision” but they also “try their best”. “They love their work as much as the show’s presenters – they just have a fucked mind,” explains Alexandre. In the film the worms have a go at giving the family’s home a makeover and the result is an elaborate house made of poop, with an excrement-filled pool and a crap-covered dog. It’s disgustingly funny and Alexandre captures the bewildered faces of the family perfectly.

Sims-like in its style, the lurid colours the animator’s used make this fake world even more surreal. Yet Alexandre is keen to “keep some logic in the universe I build” so the audience can still relate, meaning the typical tropes of the home makeover shows are still present like the big reveal, inspirational music and the close-up reactions of the family. “I try to do bad things well, I try to make people laugh at me,” says Alexandre. “I also try to include some surprises and I love the surreal things, stupid memes, bootleg toys and questionable CGI video games with characters from the 90s and 2000s.”

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Alexandre Louvenaz: Home Makeover (still)

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Alexandre Louvenaz: Home Makeover (still)

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Alexandre Louvenaz: Home Makeover (still)

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Alexandre Louvenaz: Home Makeover (still)

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Alexandre Louvenaz: Home Makeover (still)

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About the Author

Rebecca Fulleylove

Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.

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