Twilight Avenger by Kelly Richardson continues to walk the earth.  This time appearing at Islip Art Museum in Long Island New York.  To date Twilight Avenger has exhibited in Toronto (first at Birch Libralato and now currently at the Art Gallery of Ontario), Halifax (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia), Philadelphia (Screening Gallery), Houston (Diverseworks), Sundance Film Festival 2009 and Galway, Ireland (126 Gallery)  Upcoming exhibitions include Yukon (Yukon Arts Centre) and Sunderland (Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art).  Furthermore it has been acquired for the major collections of the Albright Knox in Buffalo and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

Mark Jobe from Quay Animation is very proud to have been involved in part with the filming of the live-action elements and the rotoscoping.

Mark is currently involved in the R&D and is assisting with VFX for Kelly Richardson’s latest two video installations entitled ‘The Erudition’ and ‘At War with the Mystics’.  Further information about both of these can be found on Kelly Richardson’s site here.

Four short films and a music video made by Quay have been selected to be shown at this summers Glastonbury Music Festival.  Two of those films and the music video were actually shown last year but this year we’ve gone one better.  Or two as it were.  The films are going to be shown on a couple of big ass screens over the three days as part of the 2012 Olympiad.  The films that have been selected are ‘Theory of (R)evolution’ ‘A trace of her’ (Directed by Karen Macey) ‘The Dragon’s Egg’ ‘The day the lights went out’ and the music video ‘Love the World’ by Karoshi.  For clips of these and full credits check out our main site.

As was pointed out last year we’d like to again state that if you are at the festival we would advise being on nothing stronger than paracetamol whilst watching ‘Theory of (R)evolution’  There are already skull firing laser lamp posts in there.  It’s pretty trippy to begin with.  You have been warned.

I was asked to sponsor and present the Animation Award again this year.  Congratulations to everyone nominated and the winners Jurate Gecaite and Alex Collier for their film ‘Reap what you sew’  The main highlight for me however was the host for the evening Alastair Stewart who is much funnier in real life than i was expecting. Especially when he laid into Cameron with several anecdotes about the live Election debates.

I’m currently working on an animated music video for the track “The Sweetest Tooth” taken from the album “Drawn to Dust” by New York based indie band Camphor. The group is based around the songwriting of Max Avery Lichtenstein. If Max’s name rings a bell, you may recognize him from his unconventional instrumental music for critically-acclaimed independent movies including Tarnation (written and directed by Jonathan Caouette. Exec. Producer, Gus Van Sant) Jesus’ Son (starring Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton) and The King (starring Gael García Bernal) Max also wrote the score for “The Winged Man’ written by Academy Award Nominee José Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries)

The narrative for the animation takes place during the 1930’s American Depression in a dust bowl settlement. It deals with themes of consumerism and greed amongst desperate poverty.  The style of the animation mixes CG with a stop motion feel and an assortment of steam punk-esque gadgetry.  The music video is scheduled for completion in the next couple of months.

Below is a test animation from pre-production.

Camphor - The Sweetest Tooth from Mark Jobe on Vimeo.

“A group of friends are playing on the beach when a storm breaks suddenly & they run for shelter. The Lighthouse is nearest to them & the elderly lighthouse keeper invites them in to take refuge. However all is not all what it seems…”

The Day The Lights Went Out from First Light on Vimeo.

1 day out at Souter Lighthouse (the first electric lighthouse…EVER) 10 days production time in a school in Hebburn.  19 children from Lord Blyton, Holy Trinity, Simonside and St. Marys RC Primary Schools and a couple of late nights of post production back in the studio resulted in another EPIC (Quay only gets involved with epic school projects) Animated film.

The challenge with this project was to bring together ideas from 19 children from four different schools who didn’t all know each other.  Work on consecutive days with the group split in half and try to come up with an idea for a film and make it within two weeks.  Fortunately for me the group consisted of some very talented 10 year olds and the ideas came fast.  Then came the drawings, lots of drawings.  The 2D characters were animated against a green screen and composited on top of photographs, drawings and model sets.  Everything in the film was made by the children.  Several of them had a go at using the various software used to composite,animate and edit their artwork.  The classroom next door was converted into a sound recording studio for the dialogue and sound effects. I ate a lot of crisps over those two weeks.

The finished film was premiered at the Customs House in South Shields along with four other films funded by First Light and although i may be a little bit biased ours was the best because it was the most EPIC.

Thanks go to Simon Brown from South Tyneside Education Action Zone Improvement Partnership for asking me to be involved.  Thanks also go to the members of his team who helped me during the days in school.

The film is also available to watch in full on the First Light website here

TenAlpsVision formerly known as 21st Century Media asked me to add some animated elements over the top of their live-action film to advertise the Astro Chair from Mamas & Papas.  Now, being a new-ish Dad one might have hoped for at the very least a voucher from M&P for the eye bleeding amount of rotoscoping this involved but unfortunately no.

Hats off to the guys at TenAlpsVision for managing to film the baby inbetween naps.  Check out the full film here

The National Arts Awards brings together over 500 of America’s top arts, philanthropic, and corporate leaders once a year to recognize and celebrate the achievements of individuals who have exhibited outstanding leadership in the visual and performing arts, arts education, advocacy and philanthropy. This year the honorees included Robert Redford, Salman Rushdie, Ed Ruscha, Sidney Harman and Bank of America. Kelly Richardson had the honour of being the featured artist for the event.

Featured artists in previous years have included Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Jeff Koons and Jennifer Steinkamp.

I was fortunate enough to accompany Kelly to the event held at the famous Cipriani’s restaurant on 42nd Street in New York. Free ticket, result!

On the evening Kelly’s 2006 piece entitled ‘Exiles of the Shattered Star’ was projected at least 200ft high (rough guess) behind the podium where the awards were handed out.  Her 1998 piece ‘Glow’ was projected at the front of the building to greet guests as they arrived.

Other guests included Dennis Hopper, Jeff Koons, Vera Wang, Ken Burns but not Rosario Dawson.  I don’t know what happened to her.  She was meant to receive an award and it was advertised like that right up until the last moment.  On the night there was no mention or explanation as to why she wasn’t there and since she wasn’t replying to any of my text messages and has since blocked me on facebook i still don’t have an explanation.

Just when we thought the evening couldn’t get any more surreal the President of America the Americans for the Arts, Bob Lynch (lovely guy, completely down to earth) invited us to an after show party at the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Station.

All in all just your average monday night out in New York surrounded by A-list celebrities and Art Stars.

Robert Redford at the Americans for the Arts National Art Awards

Salman Rushdie accepting his award

Ed Ruscha interviewed

Kelly Richardson and Mark Jobe

More posing...

For the 25th anniversary fall issue, Canadian Art Magazine are featuring 10 artists they think are important to the future of the international art scene. As one of the top names in the next generation in Canadian art-making, “Ten Artists to Watch” offers an in-depth essay and profile of Kelly Richardson’s practice, written by David Jager.

“Richardson deploys a formidable range of techniques and a broad palette of approaches in her creation of a new aesthetic, one that elicits a euphoric suspension of disbelief, allowing viewers to delve into the increasingly ambiguous and complex juncture between the real and the represented. She has transformed video, once a self-consciously minimal, anti-cinematic, bare-bones practice, into something much richer, and much stranger.”

The feature is currently available online at Canadian Art along with an extended profile of additional images/works.

So at the risk of coming across like a complete stalker (since most several of the posts draw attention to Kelly Richardson’s continued success) I would like to make it known to all three of you reading this blog that on the 17th July 2009 Kelly Richardson became my wife.  Officially.  It’s legally binding.  I have a certificate signed and everything!

The George, Chollerford, 17th July 2009

The wedding also provided me the opportunity to cobble together this digital invite in true over the top and tongue in cheek style.