Animated Drawings

Parasol unit is delighted to present a screening of short films of animated drawing. Selected from the foundation’s recent call-out, the screening will showcase works exploring the theme of ‘line’ by international animators.

Soniaqq (Sonia Cucculelli), ‘Skate’  2009 3 minutes 18 seconds
Sonia Cucculelli graduated from the Academy of illustration and visual communication in Rome, she works as an illustrator in advertising and publishing. Cucculelli has made numerous animated shorts that have won awards at various animation festivals. ‘Skate’, 2009 is a music video, created for the band “Tulsa is ok!”, this particular animation has been screened at the Future Film Festival, 2010 in Italy, Tour de Film, 2011 in Russia as well as Animasivo 2010, in Mexico City.

Benjamin Fox, ‘Red Route’  2012 1 minute 32 seconds
London-based artist-filmmaker, Benjamin Fox makes small films out of not very much, typically just found objects and imagination. Curious crafted properties, often in a state of flux, on paths of exploration with the aim of uncovering uncharted alchemical states. ‘Red Route’ is a short navigation, from start to finish, through wild-lined landscapes and hard-edged urban scrawls. A hand drawn journey travelling across an expanse of reclaimed till receipt paper. http://foxworlds.tumblr.com/benjaminfox

Jane Cheadle, ‘Line Weight’  2 minutes 36 seconds
Born in Johannesburg, Jane Cheadle studied at the Royal College of Art (MA) and currently lives and works in London. ‘Line Weight’ is part of a series of animations where the material suggests a process which in turn suggests a strict framework for improvisation. In this case the material qualities are wetness and weight where a droplet of water darkens a surface because of its wetness and then is pulled down by its own weight into a line.

Matt Carter, ‘Location 04 (relocated)’  2008/12 1 minute 41 seconds
Matt Carter is an artist currently living and working in London, having studied an MA in Fine Art and History of Art at Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh University. ‘Location 04’ is a hand drawn animation concerned with the physical and psychological construction and deconstruction of the urban landscape. Hundreds of Lego bricks, traced from Lego City instruction booklets, build up to construct a dense black mass that simultaneously presents a void and the reality of the site of projection. http://www.vitiate.co.uk/

Joseph Childs, ‘The Iniquitous Subsistence’  2012 6 minutes 9 seconds

Joseph Childs is an animator and artist who lives and works in the east end of London. He studied for his MA at the Royal College of Art and now lectures at the University of the Arts London and the University for the Creative Arts. ‘The Iniquitous Subsistence’, is a journey through a surreal landscape full of absurd systems which have overrun the natural landscape.

Alys Hawkins, ‘Herein’  2004 1 minute 20 seconds
Alys Scott Hawkins is an artist who works with drawing, and a director of short animated films. She studied animation at the Royal College of Art, London. Her films have won several international awards and have been screened at more than 30 festivals worldwide. Teeth, tongue, neck, spine, knees, toes, stretch, ache, warm, wet, stiff, smooth: a short and subjective tour of the body using line to explore both inside and out. ‘Herein’ is a bi-lingual title: in English the title means ‘that which is contained inside’, in German ‘come in!’ The film was made in March and April 2004 during a residency at the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Austria.

James David William Clarke, ‘Mayim’  2008 26 seconds

James David William Clarke graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA Fine Art in 2009. ‘Mayim’ is the Hebrew word for waters and the name of a specific step in Israeli folk dance. The pattern in the animation is based on the arm movements of this step and contemplates the importance of water in both mythological creation narratives and scientific theories of evolution on the beginning of life.

Irene Fuga and Rafael Sommerhalder,‘Pica’  2009  4 minutes 43 seconds
Italian born Irene Fuga graduated from the Royal College of Art and currently lives and works in London. Her practice deals with human behaviour and its restless search of the exotic, exploring these themes in both drawing and moving image. ‘Pica’ is a reflection upon the blurry line between the dreams people are sold and the realities of life in the modern world. Reality often fails to live up with these unattainable dreams and all we are left with is feathers.

Betsy Dadd, ‘Track’  2010  2 minutes 27 seconds
Betsy Dadd graduated in Fine Art Printmaking in 2008 and employs drawing and print processes in her moving image works. She was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize Exhibition 2010 and commissioned to make animated stage projections for Sadler’s Wells Theatre 2011. The animation ‘Track’ is made up of a collection of drawings made on the move. They are reassembled to take us on a journey which encounters fleeting views from the train window and landscapes jotted down into sketchbooks.

Aline Helmcke ‘58 Pages’  2008 6 minutes 27 seconds
Aline Helmcke is a Berlin based artist and filmmaker with a focus on drawing and time based art, holding a degree from the University of the Arts, Berlin and the Royal College of Art in London. Her work explores the tension between still and moving image, representational and abstract imagery through drawing and might take shape as a drawing series, a moving object or an animated film. For this drawn animation ‘58 Pages’, a daily newspaper’s entire imagery has been rotoscoped successively page by page, line by line.

Alex Chilvers, ‘A Fisherman’s Life’  2 minutes 33 seconds

Alex Chilvers is an illustrator and animator from Grimsby who currently works in London, Chilvers graduated from Middlesex University in 2009. His work revolves around observational drawings of people and places which are transformed into prints, images and animations. The animation ‘A Fisherman’s Life’ is based on North Sea Trawlermen working on the Docks in Chilvers’s hometown of Grimsby.

Claudia Mateus, ‘A line 81cm long in 36 seconds’  2012 36 seconds

Claudia Mateus was born in Lisbon where she currently lives and works. She studied Fine Art at FBAUL in Lisbon before completing an MA at Chelsea College of Art and Design. ‘A line 81 cm long in 36 seconds’ was captured on photographic film, using a photography camera; by leaving the camera’s shutter open during the time it took to wind-up the film – 36 seconds. A line – the primordial element of drawing – was captured in continuum restrained by the film strip length (81 cm). Therefore, the photographic film (still image) was scanned and turned into a video (moving image).

Katy Shepherd, ‘Encounter with a crow’, 2011 1 minute 26 seconds

Katy Shepherd studied at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1991. Since that time she has incorporated animation as part of her practice. Her films have been screened at many institutions including Tate Britain, the National Gallery, the ICA and broadcast on Channel 4. ‘One day as I was walking along the street a crow fell out of the sky (or so it seemed) and landed on the pavement in front of me. Two worlds came crashing together, the avian and the human world, the natural and the urban, the heavens and the earth, life and death.’ Katy Shepard

Yuka Takeda, ‘White Hair’ 2010  5 minutes 30 seconds
Yuka Takeda was born in 1983 and raised in Tokyo, Japan.  She earned a BA at the University of Colorado and an MA at the Royal College of Art. During her time at RCA, she developed her interests in hand-drawn animation and video installation.  She now lives and works in London. The sudden discovery of a single white hair triggers an episode of obsession and denial. ‘White Hair’ is an emotional journey, playfully exploring a train of thought as it transforms into a negative spiral.

Magali Charrier, ‘Untitled’  2011 38 seconds

Magali Charrier graduated from the Royal College of Art. A background in fine art, animation and live performance has led to her unique style of work which often combines live action and animation and explores ideas of motion and stillness; trace and presence. Within the animation ‘Untitled’, Charrier puts mark-making at the centre of film-making. In their dialogue, body and trace question the materiality of movement and of human presence. Here, drawing is used as a tool for concealing, revealing or adding to the filmed image. Magali currently has a solo show ‘How My Hands Got To Know My Feet’ at The Place, Euston, London until June 23^rd.

Claire Weetman, ‘Chatham Road (Eventually everyone had moved)’  2010 3 minutes 46 seconds
Claire often works in the public realm, tracing movement using line, sound, and drawings to document the passage of people through spaces. ‘Chatham Road (Eventually everyone had moved)’ is an animation that was produced through work with displaced residents from the Rock Ferry area of Wirral, Merseyside, whose houses were still standing 4 years after they were moved out.  By tracing and meeting the former residents, Claire charted where this fractured community had scattered and vocalised their feelings of loss for what used to be. Chatham Road was commissioned by Liverpool Biennial, Art for Places Programme.

 

 

Image: Parasol unit