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Tape #1 1974 (Circa.)

Two twigs, stuck in a plot of soil with a little cross made of twigs between them, bend slightly over a gravesite. A rustling sound—crumpled paper meant to evoke the mournful sobbing of the sticks—mixes with traffic noises outside Maughan's studio. The scene is as pathetic as it gets, especially when applied to a potentially cinematic scenario. Two Sticks Mourning at Another Stick's Funeral sets the stage for Maughan's macabre versions of sensational situations, all revolving around death and mortality. The assorted stagings suggest a sampling of genre references, including the Western in Two Sticks, horror movies in Suicide, educational film in Arteries and Veins, and melodrama in A Violent Death.