Umbrellas, girls, guns and explosions come together in Anna Burns and Thomas Brown's new work

Date
7 November 2012

You know that feeling – you come in from the pub, put the TV on for a second and then get completely engrossed in an astoundingly crappy B-movie. It’s called something like Road Flip or Checkmate (don’t bother with IMDB, I made those up) and yet you stick it out until the credits roll, unable to tear yourself away from the hammy action.

Well photographer Thomas Brown and creative director Anna Burns have tapped into the unlikely appeal of such films in their new project Pop Pop Bang, which Thomas describes as a mix of “film, photography and pyro.”

The duo have taken the three key themes of said movies – guns (lots), explosions (massive) and girls (sexy) – and created three walls of umbrellas featuring these motifs. These were then set up in three quintessentially English locales – a forest, London’s Docklands and the grounds of a country house in Suffolk – as a comment on how the ideas contained in these fiercely American works translate to a British context.

It’s a really engaging idea, particularly for anyone whose ever lost themselves in such a film sat in a suburban semi, and the visuals as you’d expect are top notch. This isn’t a project that’s easily pigeonholed, but it’s definitely well worth a look, not least for the strangest appearance of a pigeon you’ll ever see…

It’s currently on display at the Mother agency in east London.

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang (AK 47)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang (AK 47)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang (Too, closed)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang (Too, misaligned)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang (Car)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang (Car – embers)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang Umbrella (mouth)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang Umbrella (nipple)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang Umbrella (sky)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang Umbrella (trigger)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang Umbrella (gun barrell)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang Umbrella (blast)

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Anna Burns and Thomas Brown: Pop Pop Bang Umbrella (burn)

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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