“The Several Severed Heads of Daniel Edwards” is an entertaining short documentary on a sculptor with a curious obsession: decapitated noggins. Tracing his interest from a museum in his hometown that displayed decomposing heads from local murder victims, Daniel Edwards sought inspiration from comic books and horror movie magazines featuring grotesque pictures of heads that were cruelly detached from bodies. The result is a body of work…without bodies!
Filmmaker A.D. Calvo frames most of the documentary in a talking head format (which, all things considered, makes sense). At 10 minutes, the film does not have much time to go into great depth on Edwards’ art. But it does offer a glimpse at his crowning achievement: a tribute to baseball legend Ted Williams, whose head was severed from his body following a botched cryonic entombment. Even Edwards, in trying to speak seriously about the matter, notes the patent absurdity of the fate of Williams’ head and its unlikely inspiration on his surprising and (dare we say it?) cerebral art.
