Major Post 11: Different forms of animation

Posted on by Sammy Liu

Light and Shadow

This class we learnt about Alexandre Alexeieff who invented Pinscreen, which is a method that uses a lot of pins with different lengths in protrusion to create light and dark spaces. This technique allows for more flexibility in lighting and three-dimensional space – an aspect that requires more time in Cell Animation.

His works: The Nose (1963)
NFB: Mindscape (Pinscreen too)

Our second artist is Caroline Leaf – one of the earliest animators who used sand to animate. She had a low artistic background but during one of her art classes where her teacher asked them to bring stuff in, she brought in sand. Leaf carried on experimenting with sand and her technique has certainly inspired many more down the generation of artists – for example:

Which is sOO cool and expressive. I think similar to the Pinscreen technique – light and shadow and three dimensional space is something that’s achieved faster too.

The last artist that I will mention here is William Kentridge, a South African Artist, famous for his prints.
We had noticed in class, how most experimental animators have Fine Art backgrounds, and Kentridge is another example of that transition in professions.
His piece, Felix in Exile (1994) expresses social issues in his country, South Africa, and explores the physical and mental struggle of those times.
A rather uncanny source of his inspiration for his creations comes from using “other people’s pain as rare material” – Kentridge.
This stood out to me because at my first impression it sounded rather inappropriate and possibly insensitive, yet actually, with further thought, with appropriation perhaps the artists can portray it in a way that could be healing, or at the least, acknowledged.

In this video, he talks about how he uses charcoal because “you can change charcoal as quickly as your mind changes” pulling in the idea of spontaneity again; a mind-set similar to our previous artist, Norman McClaren.

Class notes:
William Kentridge
Felix in Exile (1994)
History of the Main complaint (1997)
Eyewash (1959) – Rober Breer
Fuji (1974)
Jake’s Professor – COMMUTER – Matt Patterson
George Dunning – Yellow Submarine (1968) designed by Hienz Edelman
Also Founder of TVC in London.
Paul Driessen –
The End of World in Four Season – multiple frames (like a comic book style) moving at the same time.
The Killing of an Egg (1977)
Frederic Back – Cel overlays. Colouring pencils on frosted cells.
Frederick Back – Crac (1981)

Major Post 10: Felix in Exile and the Apartheid

Posted on by Sydney McPherson

Previously, we talked about a film called “Felix in Exile” that was created by William Kentridge. I was interested in knowing more about the context of the film. It was created in 1993 and is the 5th film in a series called Drawings for Protection which Kentridge started in 1989.

The film is about a time in South Africa called “The Apartheid” which meant “apartness” in Afrikaans. It was a time of segregation and discrimination against the Black South Africans. It began as early as 1709 when “pass laws” were enacted, meaning Blacks were required to carry around a type of passport in order to move around South Africa or they’d face consequences. Things escalated in 1948 when the segregation began due to the National Party ruling South Africa in favor of white supremacy.

Later, the African National Congress (ANC) started the Defiance Campaign organizing boycotts of white owned businesses, strikes, and non-violent protests. In 1960, which was the same year as the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the police killed 69 of the peaceful protesters. In the same year, Nelson Mandela organized a smaller group within the ANC that would feature protesters armed with weapons. A year later in 1961, Mandela was arrested for treason and sentenced to life in prison.

By the end of the 1980s, White South Africans were not happy at the resistance they were facing, and the government was being pushed to bring an end to the Apartheid’s discrimination. In 1989, P.W. Botha stepped down as president of South Africa and the ban over the ANC and other groups was dissolved. F.W. de Klerk became the new president in 1990 and had Nelson Mandela released from prison. Later Mandela became president of South Africa in 1997 and enacted a new constitution that did not include discrimination.

Felix in Exile, features an “alter ego” of William Kentridge who is named Felix Teitlebaum (“Felix In Exile”). Felix is exiled in a hotel room where he is studying the maps of a Black woman named Nandi. She created maps of the landscape of the East Rand, a town near Johannesburg. Felix stays locked away in his room while the violence occurs outside in South Africa. The more Felix watches the violence, the more the pieces of paper cover up the fallen bodies.

The Guggenheim.org had an interesting view of this saying, the “figures and structures are subsumed into the landscape… [are] allegories for how the land can bear the scars of crimes against humanity” (“Felix In Exile”). I related this to a poem I read by Carl Sandburg called The Grass. This poem speaks of wars and bodies falling, and how the grass “cover[s] all” of our violent mistakes. The grass grows over everything and in a few years, we say, “what place is this?”, forgetting the terrible things that happened there (Sandburg).

I appreciate a film like Felix in Exile for representing those Black South Africans who suffered and for bringing my attention to an event that I had never even heard of. Time really does cause us to forget important things such as the Apartheid, and it’s crucial that we continue to create and remember works that help remind us of the past so that we don’t repeat it.

Sydney McPherson

Sources:

Blakemore, Erin. “The Harsh Reality Of Life Under Apartheid In South Africa”. History, 2019, https://history.com/news/apartheid-policies-photos-nelson-mandela.

“Felix In Exile”. Guggenheim, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/9422.

Sandburg, Carl. “Grass By Carl Sandburg”. Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45034/grass-56d2245e2201c.