I decided to base my animation on the theme of isolation and wanted to focus on the irony of this feeling in a world which is so connected by modern technology and social media. I thought about the coronavirus lockdown and how people felt isolated despite the whole world being in the same situation. I was reminded of an article about a woman who went door-to-door speaking to elderly people who were isolated in their own homes, so that was their only interaction. I used charcoal because it is easy to manipulate and can be erased, smudged and layered to create an evolving drawing.
I started by building up a drawing of a traditional, average-looking house that is recognisable to most people and seems idyllic in the peaceful setting. I then slowly added more houses and buildings into the surroundings to show the world becoming busy and overpopulated. It gets to the point where the original house looks suffocated and overwhelmed- it was once the focus but is now lost. This links to the idea that people have become disconnected from their roots because we are all overexposed to the wider world. The drawing becomes so crowded and the sky so polluted that the whole image becomes black.
I was inspired by 'Breathe' by David Begley to make a face emerge from the darkness, as he does this with the condensation from another character's breath. I used an eraser and chalk and placed the face in a room that looks like it could be inside one of the buildings. The character looks sombre and contemplative and is ultimately alone in a dark room, despite living in such a busy world. I added bars that look like those of a prison cell to create a sense of entrapment and a separation between the inside and outside world. I wanted to create a sense of claustrophobia and explore the irony of loneliness when we have such a connected world.
I enjoyed experimenting with new techniques and would be interested to explore the possibilities of animation in further work, because I found it more effective at creating a narrative then ordinary painting and drawing.
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