Contemporary artists increasingly are using animation techniques in a wide variety of approach and style. This international and eclectic programme celebrates the unpredictable processes of experimental animation, with a focus on how animation as a labour intensive process and form is being applied in the creation of conceptual artworks. The title is taken from a work by Yu Araki in which images of horses, appropriated from the internet, reference the pre-cinema animation of Eadweard Muybridge.
971 Horses and 4 Zebras is co-curated by artist Jordan Baseman and Gary Thomas. An exhibition (Wimbledon.arts.ac.uk/wimbledonspace) runs at Wimbledon Space Wimbledon College of Art, from 2 November – 9 December 2012 and tours to CAST (Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania), Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia, and The British School at Rome, in 2013.
The screening is followed by a panel discussion on the ways in which contemporary artists approach, appropriate and apply animation techniques in their work. Speakers include Jordan Baseman, Gary Thomas, Lilly Husbands, and David Theobald, chaired by Melissa Gronlund.
Screening
Yu Araki
971 Horses + 4 Zebras, 2007, 1.17 min
Nathaniel Mellors
Jailbreak, 2001, 0.30 min (extract)
Kit Wise
Explosion (Geranium), 2010, 2.04 min
David O’Reilly
Octocat Adventures, 2008, 5.00 min
Inger Lise Hansen
Proximity, 2006, 3.33 min
David Theobald
Walking Holiday in Grindewald, 2011, 3.26 min
Jordan Baseman
Nasty Piece of Stuff, 2009, 8.00 min
Katie Goodwin
In Between Inception (1 and 2), 2011, 2.44 min
Chris Shepherd (from designs by Paul Hatcher)
World Stare Out Competition, 1998, 6.00 min
Lois Rowe and Patrick Rowan
Filter, 2012, 4.04 min
Emily Richardson
Cobra Mist, 2008, 6.42 min
Tadasu Takamine
God Bless America, 2002, 8.18 min
James Lowne
Our Relationships Will Become Radiant, 2011, 8.52 min
Geraint Evans
Notes to Self: How to be an Ornamental Hermit, 2012, 1.30 min
Speakers’ biography
Jordan Baseman is an artist and filmmaker. He studied at Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Goldsmiths, University of London. Recent solo exhibitions include Matt’s Gallery, London; Modern Art Oxford, Oxford; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Monash University, Melbourne; and Wellcome Collection, London. He is the Reader in Time-Based Media at Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts London.
Melissa Gronlund is an editor of Afterall and a writer on contemporary art and film. She frequently contributes to publications, including Afterall, Cabinet, Dot Dot Dot, Flash Art, frieze and MIRAJ. She is acting Course Leader for the MRes: Moving Image at Central Saint Martins and a visiting tutor at the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford, where she lectures on art and film history. In 2009 and 2010 she assisted with the programming of the Experimenta section of the London Film Festival.
Lilly Husbands is a doctorate candidate in Film Studies at King’s College London, investigating contemporary experimental animation, with a focus on the various non-normative aesthetic experiences that such works offer spectators. She studied Comparative Literature at Brown University and has a Masters degree in Film Studies and Critical Methodologies from King’s College. Her interests include experimental cinema, animation and special effects, film aesthetics, film philosophy, spectatorship, and film music.
David Theobald is an artist. He studied at Wimbledon College of Art and Goldsmiths, University of London. Recent exhibitions include Deepest Sympathy at Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge and Ikon, Birmingham, Exeter Contemporary Open and RE: animate at Oriel Davies, Newtown.
Gary Thomas is an Associate Director at Animate Projects, the UK arts charity uniquely dedicated to championing artists’ experiments in animation. Animate commissioned artists include Jane and Louise Wilson, Semiconductor, Thomson & Craighead, Max Hattler and the Brothers Quay. He also works as a film adviser at the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations. He has an MA in the history and theory of contemporary art from Chelsea College of Art.