Two examples of (re)animation:
It it worked the first time...
Animation is a time-consuming business. All those frames: the keyframes and in-betweens, or 'tweens' as they're known. Why not recycle some key sequences in order to save labour and time? The mood, tone, graphic approach and subject matter of Disney animations are often quite similar and contribute to 'Disneyness': we know what to expect when we buy a ticket to a Disney animated film. Like other celebrated animators such as Tex Avery, Hayao Miyazaki and others, their own graphic approach (in particular) becomes an integral DNA-like aspect of their work.
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At this years Walkley Awards for journalism, the Australian Cartoonists Association won the award for 'The Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism'. This award usually goes to a journalist from print/radio or TV – so it was great to see visual communicators, often the unsung heroes of journalism, being duly rewarded.
The acceptance speech was along the lines of: due to our 'convict past' Australians have scant regard for authority – nothing terribly new in that, have heard that many times before – and that Australian cartoonists love to 'get ugly' in their efforts to lampoon and ridicule the powers-at-be, these efforts also aided by our somewhat liberal libel laws. The 'get ugly' bit struck a chord with me: I feel our cartoonists do 'ugly' very, very well.
One Australian cartoonist depicts the ugliness, the duplicitousness, the vanity and the sometime stupidity of our political leaders with a drawing style that looks like "the victory dance of a fly escaped from the ink pot". Bruce Petty's cartoons are beautifully and scribblingly chaotic and disarmingly funny. I have to confess to giggling everytime I see his drawings of John Howard.
Continue reading "The Fly that Escaped from the Ink Pot" »
'We're a Weird Mob: Designing a cultural identity'
Australia Post, Post Master Gallery
11 June – 9 September 2005
All Australian Graffiti are very much part of the 'urban design folklore' of Australia. Of their output, much has been said, discussed and admired over the years. But not much has been written of them. The studio existed between 1975 and 1978 when design in Australia was barely even considered a professional practice amongst the general public and design was not discussed or critiqued outside of design schools.
Younger Australian designers will be familiar with the ouput of Mambo. But around ten years before Dare Jennings' surfware label was but a twinkle in his eye, a Melbourne-based collective of illustrators and designers were exploring imagery unique to our culture: Australia's visual vernacular. Mambo certainly developed this celebration of 'Australianness' more fully, but it was All Australian Graffiti, who were only in existence for a few years, that got there first. (Plus, Mambo's output was certainly more Sydney-centric).
Continue reading "Review: The Projects of All Australian Graffiti (1975-78)" »
If you are Australian, this image reverberates deeply within your soul. If you're not – you probably have no idea what this means...
Image copyright Michael Leunig 2004.
Continue reading "An Image of Profound Cultural Signifigance for all Australians" »
