Oniko - オニコ

I’m dying to, but if I told you what Oniko means in Japanese, that would probably set off the spoiler alert sirens! So, I won’t – I will just urge you instead to watch Oniko, a collaborative group project by Masters of Animation and Visualisation 2025 students at the UTS Animal Logic Academy in Sydney, Australia.  Don’t look up why it’s called the Animal Logic Academy – I’ve done it for you.  It isn’t a bizarre veterinarian college with a quirky little animation wing added on at the back. It’s named after the famous Australian animation and VFX studio Animal Logic, which partnered with the University of Technology Sydney to create the academy.  So, now on to the animation - and it is rare to see such an exquisitely crafted piece from a professional animation studio, let alone from a group of students.  I suspect that might sound a little patronising, which I don't mean in any way - I can only give the highest praise for this exceptional piece of art.

It opens with a young high-born woman fleeing a palace in Edo-period Japan, carrying her infant son in a sling.  She escapes through the snowbound landscape as seemingly supernatural samurai pursue her through the darkness.  When there seems to be no escape for her something inexplicable happens that will change her life – and that of her baby – forever.  Developed by the student cohort through all its stages of development and production, Oniko will leave you on the edge of your seat to the very end.  Already, commenters on YouTube are calling for a sequel of for this to be developed into a full animated movie.  I can only say that I agree with them!

Tony & Aiko

We all know the type; large, overbearing and muscle bound they assume vainly (not to mention vaingloriously) that each and every girl they meet will fall at their feet, if not literally then metaphorically. Until they fall (in love) for real. Even then they still cannot quite help themselves. So it is with Tony who one bright morning encounters Aiko.

Yet Aiko isn’t going to be quite the soft touch Tony assumes.

This amusing short was created by Emmanuel Gatera and Océane Penot during their time at Centre NAD in Quebec using a variety of software packages including Softimage, Photoshop and Premiere. The ending leaves things somewhat to our imagination… can we have a sequel please?

Jessica Lichtenstein - Play at gallery nine5

Jessica Lichtenstein is very much the up and coming artist. Her work has already caused something of a stir and is owned by some of the major pop art collectors. So when her new exhibition of work – Play – opened at gallery nine5 in New York I simply had to take a peek.

Lichtenstein certainly has the ability to challenge.  What we see in this new exhibition looks, on scant inspection, to be Japanese anime dolls – with scant frankly being the operative word! Yet closer inspection (and these figurines certainly demand that) we see that some of our expectations have been usurped. The heightened sexuality of the anime girls is juxtaposed by the often very humdrum nature of the things that they are doing.

This recontextualization is something of a jolt to the system: and that is the challenge presented to us by Lichtenstein (no relation to Roy, incidentally).  View these figures from a western perspective and how much is their sexuality ascribed by us? What attributes do we endow them with on a subconscious level without too much thought?

This is indeed a provocative mix of fetishism and feminism. These vignettes make more than one demand but forefront is that we consider our own notions of sexuality. Lichtenstein takes this a step further by introducing images of these eastern sirens on objects of furniture – revealed only when you are up close.  A cherry tree pattern on a chair can turn in to something quite different.

If the few images (and I have included the less racy ones, believe me!) have wetted your appetite, you should visit the website of gallery nine5 who have produced a very fluid ecatalogue of this exhibition. If you are lucky enough to live or be visiting the city then you can find gallery nine5 at 24 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012. The exhibition is open until December 15.

PencilHead

You may not understand this completely, or at all – I know I didn’t – but you can’t help but be astonished by this bravura piece of animation.

You will see all sorts of anime references in PencilHead as well as nods to other popular culture icons, such as Pink Floyd’s walking hammers. It all builds up in to something quite mind blowing!

Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim provides the music track if you have been beating your head to remember what it is!