Blu muto how long did it take

It is a disturbing and dynamic metamorphosis in constant evolution, which maps the walls of a run-down part of the city, spreading into rubble and derelict buildings. Just as one painting replaces another to create movement on the walls, the effects of this creation are left visible, through the white paint residue of erased artwork and the time-lapse of the sky, moving cars and passers-by. This only adds to the effect when the paintings interact with actual objects; here, Blu also plays with stop-motion animation on city objects and detritus of the everyday, as well as some passers-by turned actors.

Animation has no rules — except, perhaps, the constraint of expressing a succession of images in sequence. The original animations were made on Ancient Egyptian murals so that charioteers riding past at full speed could see different images following each other at such a rate that persistance of vision would blend them into a movement.

Attempting to preserve a fragment of the story warps its driving creative force, the power it draws from the ephemeral, the city and its fleeting encounters. Independant curator and art historian. Now based in Paris, I write about art, undertake independant research and curate contemporary art exhibitions and projects. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.

You are commenting using your Twitter account. His work is aware of its political location, often referencing the social environment in which it finds itself. Blu thus follows a tradition of mural painting and social reform that harkens back to Latin American artist-activists such as muralist Diego Rivera. This stratagem of using public space to incite the community is by its nature a harbinger of controversy and conflict.

Muto begins with an animation doodle, something playful and perhaps not fully conceived. The opening of Muto , for example, gives the impression of an artist finding his inspiration in the opportunities presented by location and whimsy. Yet during the process of the animation, Blu organizes his animation around the central themes that carry over from his graffiti work. The transformation of location, a sense of playfulness harkening to Dadaist art; an understanding of art as a tool against authority and a concern for social needs are the goals that seem to come out of his work.

Within the animation, a man walks across a wall holding his head as it changes from one geometric shape to another. He briefly evolves into a four-legged mechanical creature then becomes a crystallized pile of geometry.

The human form subsumes to the mechanical and the geometric. The novelty of the transformations attract us by making the audience wonder what will happen next, but on a deeper note, there is a lure to the stutter of the camera movement and drawings on the surface of the buildings that lends an air of authenticity to the animation. We understand that Blu is creating an illusion of movement, the flawed nature of the artists hand is on display for us too see, he is not simulating a reality.

Animation is often called the illusion of life. How appropriate is this term, especially when we consider that simulation is much different then illusion? Simulation strives to be mistaken for reality. As Baudrillard , p. A different kind of understanding plays into an illusion, such as a stage magician creates with a trick to fool us. The audience steps into an agreement to try to be fooled. The magician knows he is creating a false moment; the audience understands this too.

If he can create the illusion without revealing the truth of how he creates the moment, then we congratulate him on an illusion well done. The opening title sequence of the documentary film Wild Style , by the legendary graffiti artist Zephyr, is exemplary of this disconnect.

Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, there is a pronounced difference in philosophy. It removes graffiti from its location in the street and tries to reproduce it with animation cells painted and inked in a studio. It suffers from what happens when graffiti is removed from its context and shown in galleries or art exhibits.

Part of what gives graffiti its edge is the street; without the street it becomes feeble. Zephyr, as one of the leading pioneers of graffiti in New York City, was trying to translate his style into traditional animation techniques and tools. Context has always helped give animation impact, dating back over a hundred years to the first film animation by James Stuart Blackton, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces Using stop-motion with chalk and paper cutouts, and featuring Blackton as a magician making drawings magically move, the film acted as a link between the live vaudeville performances of the past and the new magic of the cinema.

There have been many pioneers of animation that have explored not only the use of stop-motion to create the illusion of movement but the play of the seductive image in animation. McLaren created the short using a technique called Pixilation, which uses people and props as stop-motion puppets.

In Neighbors , the love of a natural resource leads to conflict between two neighbors are ultimately transformed into savages, as paint animates their features. Blu also shares the use of animation to document the movement of his paint and drawings with contemporaries such as William Kentridge. Kentridge draws and erases his art on paper documenting the changes in camera creating stop-motion movement.

His movement leaves trails of erased drawings as testimony to the passage of the artist and the material much as does Blu with his trails of whitewashed surfaces. We enter into the film as a willing participant, seduced by the possibilities expressed in the ambiguity and seeing the authenticity of the art that is created and performed before the camera in the street.

He melts into an even larger head and shoulders, lifts his hands to his head and peels open his skull to reveal, like a nested doll another smaller version of himself inside his head. This continues to repeat 4 times until a 2-story house is revealed see fig. Out from the house crawls a figure similar to our 6-handed creature at the opening of the animation, except now sporting the head plucked from the figure.

The creature scurries into the bushes and into the dark of a crevice. Transformation of surfaces, transformation of imagery and transformation of ideas—over and over figures crystallize, to be reborn, crack apart to reveal new copies of the original.

At the end we see the final evolution; insects swarm over the head until its black with them, then drop to the ground dead revealing the skull. As an overplayed symbol, it still finds life by providing closure. Blu brings to stop-motion animation a freshness that is contextualized within the motivations and ideologies of street art. By grafting together the tools of painting, the canvas of architecture, the post-modern ideas of simulation and seduction, and an awareness of hybrid styles and technologies, he creates a new experience in his wall animation Muto.

In a world overrun with the hyper-real Blu reminds us that the illusion of movement is more authentic then its simulation. Muto is real because it never loses connection to context and it communicates this directly to the audience. In the end, so much of what Blu says in Muto is his desire to make us aware of change.

Where else could all of this transformation lead but to death, the ultimate transformer? In nature life rises from this process of renewal, but death in this seductive metaphor leads only to silence: Muto.

A previous version of this paper was delivered at The Animation Machine. August , Thanks to Editor Amy Ratelle for her invaluable help in preparing this paper. Albinson, I. Wild Style Opening Title Sequence. Art of the Title.

Baudrillard, J. Translated by Brian Singer. Because of its importance, this work has also won many awards. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies.

It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Blu Street Art Like most street artists , Blu began painting graffiti with spray paint.

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