Well, if the beginning of the year wasn’t grim enough already, lockdown 3.0 has made it all the grimmer. I’ve been distracting myself by looking at pretty objects, namely the beautiful Zoetrope packaging project that Annie Atkin’s posted about just before Christmas for Hendrick’s gin. I love packaging with a purpose, something that can be used long after the product it housed is gone. Having the cork act as the Zoetrope’s handle was a great touch, making the opening of the bottle an event in itself. Hendrick’s is also known for its quirky Victorian illustration style, so the use of the Zoetrope was also really on brand.
When I worked at the Hugh Lane gallery, I spent a bit of time studying early forms animation - and even once made a far less successful Zoetrope. The gallery houses the Francis Bacon studio and Bacon’s work was very influenced by Edward Muybridge, a photographer and pioneer in photographic studies of motion (he also murdered a guy, but then what artist hasn’t).
Muybridge photographed horses in motion and to display those images he invented the zoopraxiscope, which is thought of as an early movie projector. People were amazed by the images, since before this they wouldn’t have been able to see how horses run or the fact that, at times, horses have all four hooves in the air, almost like they were flying. These early experiments helped pave the way for modern cinema and animation as well as special effects. Muybridge’s images also influenced other artists work like Duchamp’s ‘Nude descending a staircase’ where he used superimposed images to depict motion and in turn, Boccioni’s ‘Unique Forms of Continuity in Space’.
Everything’s a remix, eh?
After falling down this rabbit-hole, I was inspired to explore some animation again. It seemed like a great idea - if a totally January cliché - to start running again, but I’ve quickly realised it’s a bit repetitive to do so within my 5k limit. I’ve literally been running in circles and it feels exactly like this animation looks. In animation layers are called ‘onion skins’ so you can see the before and after images of what you’ve drawn. Here I’ve used them just like Duchamp’s superimposed images to create a feeling of perpetual motion.
