Lilli Carré

Friends reminisce and speculate about an upcoming Groundhog Day party

Precarious and fluid arrangements constantly interrupt one another in a montage of waiting, anticipating, and transitioning forms. Arrangements of marks and geometric forms are faced with unresolved states. Objects struggle to maintain their shape, stay upright, or avoid disappearing. "Crux Film" is an animation composed of segments of work by Lilli Carré and Alexander Stewart. Created over the course of several weeks in shared studio spaces, these simple animated segments developed directly in response to one another; ideas, images, challenges and structures ping-ponging back and forth between the two animator’s light boxes.

A living room shrinks only to expand again in this morphing animation. The skilful line work reveals a cupboard, a door lock and a tap, but also personal items transitioning – increasingly urgently – into one another. Lilli Carré, whose graphic novels are published by Fantagraphics, created a forensic investigation of a private space which can continually change shape.

Jill builds on the history of the rebellious cartoon body. Set in a plain white room reminiscent of a gallery space or testing laboratory, an acousmatic voice interacts with Jill through a series of commands. Jill shows the wear and tear of slapstick, maintaining dents on a body that seems to feel no pain. The piece speaks to power dynamics between creator and creation, recalling one of the earliest animations, Gertie the Dinosaur.

A fruit grows. A woman eats it.

Painted formless figures haunt recent photos of empty public spaces, expressing a helpless, frantic energy felt in our current moment. They become displaced from their locations, as their environments dissolve and their printed record evaporates.

A goat, a weed, a person, a ladder, and a snake strive to climb upwards while collapsing, transforming, and combining in different ways, always in-between. Created as an animated music video for the song Sunever by Chris Cohen, from his album Paint a Room. The film was made using gouache and watercolor on paper.

The animated body shifts in smear frames through the history of painting, parroting famous depictions of women. She tests the postures by inhabiting them and promptly discarding them, rejecting the fantasy that each represents. The cartoon body is confined by the frame but thrives in constant transition.

Everything leaks at least a little.

A man tries to remember his wife but only comes up with scant details as his memory starts to stray.