Drawing memory absence: I do not remember.

I do not remember. No words obscure my thoughts.










I do not remember things very well.
There is a swing and a budgerigar in the upper part of my brain.
Budgerigar whistles.
I had an MRI scan.

Books in stop-motion

by Ian Hammond

ESSAY. Biblioclasm. Barbara Hashimoto.

Barbara Hashimoto is very good at destruction. She has a history a firing books and displaying piles of shredded junk mail.

I have been trying to find somewhere to see her ceramic books myself. Having seen Yohei Nishimura's book at the National Arts Library at V&A, I was touched and inspired by the ephemeral lightness of it. Hashimotos books seem to lack that quality. It would be really good to see them first hand.

Moomins in stop-motion

First, of all, I am a great - oh really really great - fan of Tove Jansson. I have read the moomins, I love her illustrations. I have also read The Summer Book (this summer), which mush be the most beautiful piece of slow rolling fiction I have even come across.

So - we went to see Moomins and the Comet Chase 3D (U) today, as part of London Children's Film Festival at Barbican. Fantastic stop motion animation. Really beautiful, clever and bonkers - just the way moomins should be. And Bjork's song sounds so right there!

Surprisingly I did not enjoy it quite as much as I assumed I would. Is it because I am used too much to Tove Jansson original illustrations?


German-Polish fuzzy-felt moomins:

Here are the Russian Mommin Comet Chase. Not too dissimilar from the above! However, I strongly disagree with the frilly Moomin Mama's apron.

Here is another Russian moomin animation. Bizzare mooomins! Or are they moomins?

These are the Japanese moomins.

Forgetfullness

On the cause of spots and boils

I found this old unfinished sketch of my stop motion animation, when tidying up my computer today.

Camberwell final MA Show

?

It's that time of the year again, when some students finish their arts degrees and proudly display their fantastic and not so very fantastic work for the scrutiny of the public.

I went in to see our MA show today and - well - there was some truly sensitive and beautiful work.

First, I saw Designer Maker. I have a soft spot for them, because that was the course, which had also offered me a place and I chose not to take it. I have never stopped wondering, if I did the right thing.



Julia Bailey had a totally surreal dreamworld. She does ceramics and she combined that with a video projection, resulting in a very poetic and dreamlike experience.
It was really good to talk to Julia. I saw her presentation during Symposium 2 and I got curious about her work. She is part-time, like me, and she seemed to have gone through the same kind of experience: from being all over the place to narrowing down her range. Seeing her final pieces was a great encouragement, that my work might end up somewhere good too :-)







Jessica Zoller had a multitude of china cups, illuminated from behind or with tiny led lights. A bit like Bodo Sperlein fairy lights, only more grown up, more sophisticated.


They also had another room for the designer-makers: the one with a table and some other stuff. There was something by somebody that I liked, however, as I pulled out the camera, they were very quick to warn me, that photography was not allowed in that room. Totally bizzare, I thought! I assumed they were there to promote themselves!



Anyway, fine art had some interesting and clever pieces. My favorite was Naiomi Uchida. I loved her scroll. Maybe it is the possibility of beautifully produced simple narrative that I liked so much. Oh - and it is in the New Contemporaries!



Jim Threapleton - I did not take a photo of his work, because my camera was discharging. So this is from the Camberwell website.

Paul Gale's and Alexander Daniel's work was left unphotographed too, because of the flat battery (since I had my camera fixed, it's battery discharges very quickly!)

Paul Gale used to work with deterioration and degradation of materials, before he moved onto deterioration of mind, mental illness.


Daniel Alexander used to make extraordinary vegetable prints. Now he takes photos with a pinhole camera and makes etching out of them.They are so much more complex and sophisticated. You can really spend time looking at them and into them.




Here are some illustrators I liked.

Luca Pizzari

I-Ying Yeh

Petra Kneile

And finally - last but not least - here is our Book Arts table! People have been saying how strong our show was!

Erin's (Erin K. Schmidt does not have a website) table wins 10 out of 10 for display. There is also a stunning boa made of feathers, printed with diary - to complete the setting (how could I not take a picture of that!). I like Erin's work for it's bravery and shameless honesty, wrapped up in this very sensitive design. Well done, Erin!

Roland (Roland Brauchli) had this heavy ball on autocopy paper. A visitor would pull the paper and the ball would roll, leaving a mark on the next sheet. Very clever interpretation of chance.





And this is Michelle Mulherton's miniscule life fragments.

I will put a separate blog for the Book Arts MA show a bit later...

Where can I find that Jordan Chatwin's animation?

I have been looking for Jordan Chatwin's animation. For his final BA Illustration show, he had this most beautifully hypnotising collage of old planes taking off, dancers on ice and dreamlike music to tie it all together. Nothing like I've seen before.
Where could I find it? I'd love to keep a snippet of it!

Moving paper dolls

When assembling those dolls, what do they put into the joints to let them move?

Fedrigoni paper montains

Hina Aoyama cuts with scissors

Hina Aoyama cuts these with scissors.

Toilet paper masks by Fritz Junior Jacquet

I have been looking at all sorts of stuff, trying to get some ideas for my monomyth hero.

These are really cool! They are made from toilet paper by Fritz Junior Jacquet.

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty

I saw this at Barbican yesterday.
Beautiful! Oh, don't we love scaring little scaredy children!
A bit Edward Gorey.

Animate the World 2010 VS Anime Weekend

Two heartbreakingly beautiful feasts of animation in one weekend. How do you choose?!

Animate the World 2010 at Barbican
and
Anime Weekend at BFI

Animate the World has got all the workshops, Karel Zeman films, japanimation.



Anime Weekend has got... anime, of course. Including Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva.



Uh...
Brendan and the Secret of Kells?

"Introducing Wittgenstein" to those who get easily bored

That could be me :-)

Heaton and Groves show, that one does not have to bore readers shitless when dealing with the "serious" philosophy. Fantastic illustrations and a great sense of humor throughout the book.

In Introducing Wittgenstein we meet a strange man, a rigorous logician who prized poetry above philosophy, who inherited a fortune and gave it away, who sought death in the trenches of the First World War, a great teacher who advised his students to give up philosophy, a solitary man who nonetheless inspired lifelong friendships. We are also given a clear and accessible guide to Wittgenstein's central works.