Balloons
2D Animation / 4′
TSE Zi Yi, Jeannie 謝子怡
2020 BA Creative Media graduate
Abstract
Ballons is a 2D short animation following a day in the life of a Balloon man.
In a world where everyone’s head is made of a balloon, Balloon man goes to work with his bag in hand and passes through different people where some float and some do not. He presses a button in his office and a bag pops out. One by one the floating workers take the bags, drop to the ground, and walk away. When Balloon man leaves, he goes back to his place and drops his bag, then Balloon man starts to float.
Artist Statement
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood” – T.S. Eliot
Poetry has always spoken to me on a personal level as it could easily allow me to get in touch with my feelings without the need to fully understanding the verses. This concept of poetry shaped how I view other art forms where I eventually valued more about the artistic expression felt by the viewers, than the rational understanding of the art itself.
With this concept of ‘communicating before understanding’ in mind, my work uses a surrealistic setting to suggest different interpretations of the narrative that could hopefully establish a sense of resonance. Each of my characters has an underlying cause and effect relationship with the world they live in. Gravity further acts as a fair and controlled variable for the floating mechanism to the balloons. The peculiarity of their looks and static behaviours is meant to raise questions for provoking further discussions. Throughout the film, a white and empty background is used to leave room for imagination, paired with some simple black and white lines, the resulted plain tone could then remove the distractions of colourful visuals so that viewers could focus more on the interpretations and the feelings that come with it.
The narrative and stories in my work were mainly inspired by the famous writer, Franz Kafka. His tragicomic stories depict different frustrating and illogical situation formed from the bureaucracy that leaves his protagonist powerless and alienated. Even though his stories were written in the 20th century, it is amazing to see how it still resonates nowadays. The sense of irony in his stories captivates me as I started to explore the causal relationship between an individual and society. His influences, together with the reflection on my personal experiences and observations, led to my own sense of irony that gave rise to a Kafkaesque narrative.
The ambiguity and the interpretative openness in my work allow connections between disparate elements that could lead to a layering of meanings. The idea, then, is to reflect upon our relationship with ourselves and the world we live in, almost like a sense of remembrance.
