Sunday, March 22, 2009

Animation Breakdown, Tate Modern


Tate Modern held an Animation Breakdown weekend this week and I was able to get along to part of yesterdays study day. I was interested in seeing the possible range of work that's being done by contemporary artists, in digital media, following my own interest in video.
So it was great to see a lot of different work and hear from some of the artists during panel discussions. Simon Faithfull showed some work made using palm pilot drawings on a trip to the source of the river Lea. He also showed a tribute, little animation of a dog who had died but through the work was re-animated. Under an Arts Council funding Simon had also gone to Antartica with a research team and sent back a drawing a day by e-mail.

I was interested in his work because it shared similarities with mine and he used animation in small amounts.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jennifer Steinkamp showed examples of her completely computer generated work, which is large scale and based and involving architectural forms. Samba Falls work questions the nature of identity and self, with an opening striking image of a skeleton lying above a barcode.

Animate Projects has many films to watch, news, events and a blog.

In the Tubine Hall was Dominique Gonzalez-Foersters installation TH.2058 looking into an imaginary future in London 50 years from now, when we will be seeking shelter from the continuous rain.There was something menacing about the spider like creature and the bare bed frames, which had some books treated for the expected damp.The giant apple core is by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje von Bruggen.


Outside the sun was still shining and I took some photographs of the silver birch trees, growing taller each year.

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