Eleven in Motion: Abstract Expressions in Animation – Program

Commissioned by the Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS), this programme is a personal and original response to the work of the Painters Eleven by talented and accomplished animation artists from across Canada. The animators have themselves researched and chosen from the Painters Eleven an artist with whom they feel a personal connection. Similar to experimental animation in Canada, which was once a highly regarded mode of expression before commercial animation usurped the stage, the Painters Eleven have largely fallen out of the public spotlight. In commissioning short animated works that draw from, respond to or are inspired by seminal works created by the Painters Eleven, we hope to have revitalized knowledge of and interest in the Painters Eleven. Much like the development of the Painters Eleven group, this project brings together a diverse array of accomplished artists, each with their own style and motivations. These artists are united by modern artistic sensibilities and their collective commitment to creating works of art that experiment with the animation medium, pushing the envelope of artistic expression. TITLES: Patrick Jenkins inspired by Kazuo Nakamura Title: Inner View Running Time: 2 mins Kazuo Nakamura’s art has its roots in the visual patterns found in nature. His keen interest in science and mathematics was a way of rediscovering the structure of our world. In this animation, Jenkins attempts to recreate Nakamura’s work using paint on glass animation. A selection of Nakamura’s paintings and sculptures have been animated as if they are being created in front of our eyes, like constantly growing and evolving plants. Set to music performed and composed by Paul Intson, with Ron Korb improvising on flute. Richard Reeves inspired by Walter Yarwood Title: The Yarwood Trail Running Time: 4 mins Inspired by the artwork and sculptures of Walter Yarwood. This abstract film was created by carving stamps and applying the images directly onto the film using bleach. Frames were then hand painted and a soundtrack produced by drawing shapes along the optical sound area directly onto the film. Images represent the structure and design found in Walter Yarwood’s artworks, especially the colours of the acid washed bronze and patterns found in his paintings. Lisa Morse inspired by Hortense Gordon Title: The Importance of Hortense Running Time: 3:30 mins Hortense Gordon was a teacher as well as an artist, and studied abstract painting under one of the great teachers of that movement, Hans Hoffman. As an artist who makes figurative images, even in what is known as “experimental” animation, I had to do some research not only on Hortense, but on abstract painting. Also, researching Hortense turned up as much about her teachings (and, by extension, Hoffman’s) and philosophies as her work, so in the end I felt I was working through the film as a pupil. These are my exercises. Rick Raxlen inspired by Harold Town Title: Old Ink Running Time: 3:40 mins Using primarily the black and white drawings of Harold Town and riffing on the original drawings by primitively animating their contents, this short, abstract, primarily black & white piece eschews continuity and embraces the non-linearity of the drawn/painted etched line. Ellen Besen inspired by Tom Hodgson Title: STROKE Running Time: 4:14 mins Action painter, Olympic paddler, bon vivant of the highest order: these are words that exemplify Tom Hodgson, a man of many seemingly contradictory parts. This film explores the connective tissue that held his life together. Vivid, rhythmic imagery pulls the viewer into a world where the mighty sweep of a paddler’s arm becomes the abstracted sweep of paint across a page becomes the primordial, sexual stroke of a life fully lived. Craig Marshall inspired by Ray Mead Title: The End is the Beginning Running Time: 2:20 mins “My opinion is … the modern painter cannot express his age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio in the old forms of the Renaissance … the modern artist is living in a mechanical age … working and expressing an inner world-in other words, expressing the energy, the motion, and other inner forces.” – Jackson Pollock Working from Pollock’s notion that the modern world of atom bombs and destruction obliterated the need for representational art and called forth a new, introspective form of art creation, Craig Marshall takes a Ray Mead painting as his starting point and moves backwards. Pasquale LaMontagna inspired by William Ronald Title: William’s Creatures Running Time: 3:00 mins With joyful spontaneous energy, William’s Creatures sets on boundaries in this light-hearted and fun adaptation of one of William Ronald’s later Works. With an oceanic setting of bizarre and unusual sperm creatures playing their performance to the improvisational score Brotherhood of Adventure (Tiny Orchestra Trio), William’s Creatures will prove to tickle your pickle for a full three minutes!! Élise Simard inspired by Alexandra Luke Title: As Above so Below Running Time: 1:45 mins Guided by Luke’s spiritual and philosophical preoccupations, Simard creates a film that addresses the natural tensions between the extraordinary and the ordinary, and the search to transcend everyday experience. Nick Fox-Gieg inspired by Oscar Cahén Title: Traffic Flow II Running Time: 2:50 mins “Traffic Flow II” is an abstract animation tightly choreographed to a soundscape evocative of mid-20th-century Toronto. Steven Woloshen inspired by Jock MacDonald Title: Playtime Running Time: 2:44 mins Jock MacDonald painted in both worlds: figurative and the abstract. Playtime pays homage to his dedication, spirit and wonderful subject matter – both real and imaginary. In Cinemascope. Félix Dufour-Laperrière inspired by Jack Bush Title: Strips Running time: 5 mins Crossing from pictorial representation to abstraction is, among other things, a matter of organizing the visual information in the image. When the frames from a vintage striptease film are cut in stripes and replaced in various orders, we may witness this transition. Filmstrips, stripes and stripteases all together in a short film about the passage to abstraction. Inspired by Jack Bush’s painting Stripes to the right.