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Review of artwork at Columbus Museum of Art

The piece I saw in “The Sun Placed in the Abyss” at the Columbus Art Museum that seemed to relate to my own project the most was “Can the Sun Lie?” by Susan Schuppli. While it wasn’t an animation, it was a looping video displayed with headsets to hear the artist’s narration similar to how I would like my projected video to be displayed as when it is completed and ready for a gallery viewing. Susan used court proceedings of an 1886 US Court in which the photographic evidence was put up for debate to settle the question she had in mind similar to how I feel I’ve chosen to explore people’s fears when I spoke to others about them. While at first it appears to just be somewhat of a documentary the film slowly alters this perception by distorting itself as it progresses through its almost thirteen-minute duration. Things start to act like how you wouldn’t expect, which I believe the author uses to make her point that the Sun can become a liar through man’s manipulation. I really enjoyed how she choose to use the possibilities of her artwork’s medium to emphasize what she was trying to get across with blurs, and strange unexpected pictorial shifts to show this degradation that light isn’t always truthful even if it doesn’t change, the way we change it can. She explains how the Inuit people of Canada noticed the Sun was setting further west. While some came to the conclusion that this must have meant that the Earth must have tilted on its axis, the reality of it was that extra carbon emissions that were put into the atmosphere by the industrialization of mankind was refracting the sunlight to make it appear as if the Sun’s setting location was different from the recorded history of what was already shown to be through the Inuit’s recordings.

Artist Inspirations.

For my project I will be creating a seemingly light hearted animation on the surface with bright colors and cartoon aesthetics but I want it to have a dark and creepy feel to it since it is meant to be a project about fears and anxieties. Some of the artists I have for inspirations I will list below but before I do I also wanted to mention some more genre defining inspirations.

First off I want to mention Disney animation studios as a whole for a few reasons. They’ve used 3D CGI in a manor that reminds me of what I’m planning to be doing as I want my animations cel-shaded to have that flattened look. Wildebeast CGI PaperMan But besides that they have many examples throughout their films that keep to bright colors and yet still have that creepy feel to them.

Pink Elephants on Parade

Pinocchio Jackass Transformation

Also before I mention the artists I want to mention some movies I’m trying to draw some inspiration from as well with the creepy feel or the unnatural movements that make your nerves stand on end with which would be some of the affect I would like to cause. The main three I’m looking at at this point in recreating a sense of would be Pan’s Labyrinth, The Ring, and The Grudge.

 

The first artist I’m drawing an inspiration from is Bill Plympton. He’s a hand drawn cartoon animator that has sort of that light hearted creepy feel to many of his shorts that I’m looking to recreate. He is an american animator, graphic designer, cartoonish, and filmmaker perhaps best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face.

Summer Bummer

Guard Dog

The Wiseman

 

The next artist I want to mention is Jennifer Steinkamp. Her works use 3D animations and the bright colors I look to implore. She is an intallation artist who works with video and new media in order to explore ideas about architectural space, motion, and perception.

Small works (The River of No return, X-Ray Eyes)

 

The last artist I will bring to mention now will be Jonathan Monoghan. He is a artist that also uses 3D animations in his works. He has a lot of the surreal type of creations in many of his works that will be a long the lines of what I want to create as well as having an animation that is cyclical just as I plan on mine being.

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Rainbow Narcosis