18 November 2011 to 15 January 2012

Animation Crank Handle in Turku Art Museum until January 15th

The last exhibition in the Animate series in the Turku Art Museum presents again work by animation artists. Works in the Darkroom represent the very latest efforts by the Animation Crank Handle association. They are The Illustrated City by Jan Andersson, Kihi-Kuhi by Maria Björklund, Substance by Mark Ståhle and A Finnish Fable 2011 by Niina Suominen.

The Illustrated City ( music and sound Anton Sundström) by Jan Andersson depicts the long-term events of a universal city at a breathtaking tempo. The film won the national competition for under 30 minute films at the Tampere Film Festival.
 
Kihi-Kuhi (producer Tatu Pohjavirta) by Maria Björklund seeks to dissociate itself from cinematic narrativity and framing and to disrupt the conventional idea of time. On a pink background, graphic forms are seen criss-crossing in all directions.

A Finnish Fable 2011 (music Tuomas Toiviainen) by Niina Suominen was well received in the Nordic short film competition at the Nordisk Panorama festival this autumn. The experimental object animation captures the viewer’s heart immediately. An urbane male mannequin is shown enjoying Finnish nature and doing all the things Finns traditionally do at the summer cottage when Finnish nature blooms at its best.

Substance (sounds Petri Mattila) by Mark Ståhle starts from very similar premises as Björklund’s work, but ends up very differently. Ståhle has distilled everything that is important into a simple, but thereby all the livelier line. The body language and gestures of the figures give the viewer hints about the surrounding events, which otherwise exist in the animation only as sounds.

Dedication to developing animation

All artists have been working with animation for more than ten years, and have also been active in related associations. Maria Björklund and Mark Ståhle are both also comic artists.

The exhibition in the Darkroom was coordinated by Tatu Pohjavirta, the chairman of Animation Crank Handle, and every animation in the show has received financial support from the association.

Established in 2004, Animation Crank Handle (‘Animaation apupyörä’ in Finnish) is an association dedicated to developing animation as an art form, improving the skills of animators, and providing opportunities for creating non-commercial independent animation films.