Robert Bresson’s film ‘A Man Escaped’, (France, 1959) follows our hero plotting his break from jail. He works daily in his cell on small menial tasks to aid his venture – often proving fruitless. At the film’s climax, it becomes clear that the focus was not his escape, rather his meticulous obsession – the endless dedication to those small acts – creating rope, chiseling sharp instruments, etc. The process of animation presents a similar predicament – as the completed work is the end of an activity that is often private, repetitive and planned out – as making a film frame by frame would indeed dictate. The main ‘event’ is the very planning, as it is where the real excitement and creativity lies. The process that comes after that is akin to manual labour – a repeat of endless motions verging on delusion. The real potential for error, revolution and dramatics lies in the thinking process and rationalising how ideas will come to fruition. My video for Reign of Error sits outside of itself – an unclear series of dreams, accidents presented through the medium of animation. While planning my work I would lie awake at all hours following the lights of cars passing by my window, casting shadows on the wall opposite. Fragmentary visualisations I would project onto this uneven canvas – colliding, unrealised. I honour the error as a daydream, an ode to these twilight moments where small plans and abstract aesthetics flow. As the medium of animation is so arduous, with a great deal of drawings, thinking and often extensive collection and collaboration prior to the artwork’s construction, I wanted to liberate the medium from itself, bringing several ideas into flow – thinking, presenting my work as a series of unrealised projects running parallel.
Single Channel Video exhibited at REIGN OF ERROR group show at First Draft Gallery, September 2012