When Strange Things Happen by Felix Colgrave

How did the stories, characters and worlds of Australian children's television shape your childhood, and influence your art practice?

That's the question we asked six artists to explore by creating a new work based around their relationship with Australian kids’ TV and the culture of their formative years. Celebrated as ‘fan art’, the artists explored their memories of ACTF stories across a broad range of mediums. 

Here, Felix Colgrave discusses how children's television impacted his childhood and inspired his work, When Strange Things Happen.

Felix Colgrave

When Strange Things Happen, 2022

Digital animation.

How did our television content shape your childhood experience?

Round The Twist’s stories always stuck with me, and while I didn’t get home from school early enough to see it consistently or I’d just catch the ending, it was enough to prompt me to pick up Paul Jennings’ books from the school library so I could read the rest of the stories, which became a huge part of my childhood, and has shaped the stories that I wanted to write as an adult.

Tell us about one of your fondest and strongest memories of watching Australian television.

I lived too far from town to get home in time for most after-school kids shows, but when I was a very small kid I would go to a home daycare after school, and ABC kids was permanently on. I distinctly remember watching Mr Squiggle, and then trying to convince the other kids to play the drawing game from the show after it would air.

How has ACTF content influenced your art practice?

As a kid I always wanted to be an animator, and seeing a range of Australian stories on TV that were animated, or dealt in the fantastical, made that feel touchable and is probably why I’m an animator today.

Cartoons, fantasy and exaggerated stories rely on a vernacular, and children’s media is where that departure from reality is most potent and varied. ACTF shows among others showed me all the different ways Australian symbolism, humour and sensibilities can be expanded into tall tales, and imbued me with a sense of responsibility to carry that with me in my work.

Describe your artwork and the story behind it.

The stories and creatures in Round The Twist are all so memorable that it seemed a shame to choose just one episode, or to focus on the recurring cast. So I made the piece as a series of vignettes featuring some of the creatures encountered in different episodes, each illuminated by the iconic lighthouse. The implication in the show is that all of these paranormal goings-on are permanently there even though the Twist family only encounter one per episode, so I liked the idea that all of the creatures could be there at the same time, going about their business, while the family is asleep.

I chose episodes of the show that had striking visual motifs that could be referenced easily in a single image, but the real thing that made these things memorable was the stories behind them. I hope my little video dredges up some old memories for people who grew up watching the show and might have almost forgotten some of these, and I’ve hopefully captured some of the viscera that gave the practical effects their haunting charm.