The Rube’s World

Read all about The Rube’s World in The Hand’s interview with Eamon Monaghan!

Part installation, part illustrated work-in-progress, this exhibition showcases Eamon Monaghan’s unique filmmaking process. Each scene of “The Rube’s World” is built by hand: from intricate miniature landscapes to elaborate life-size props. It is a hugely ambitious project, and we present it at its halfway point: a year in, Monaghan estimates it will take another year to finish the 15 minute film.

Monaghan describes his process an interview with The Hand:

The miniatures, the canyons, the windmills, and the city scape: that took me maybe 3 months. Just showing up every day and tinkering.

Putting in the the physical labor, that creates a space to contemplate the narrative arc. Or at least what’s gonna happen next. I think if I was just sitting at my computer, thinking, “OK! What happens next?” rather than building these things, I would arrive at a very different place.

I really like having these distinctly different parts of the process.

In one, I think about: What do I want to build?

And then I think about what I’m building: how is that going to integrate itself into the narrative? And so there’s more writing. And then I shoot the thing. And then I edit it.

And then I see what I have. Cool. What happens now? I build the next thing.