Federico Solmi
dal 8/1/2010 al 13/2/2010
Segnalato da
8/1/2010
Federico Solmi
LMAKprojects, New York
Douche Bag City is a video installation of 8 single channel hand drawn animated films and in an edition of 10. The film is meant to be a satire about the current world economic crisis. The video consists of several chapters; each represents a mission for the character. In the past four years, Federico Somi has been entirely focused on developing hand-drawn animated videos.
Douche Bag City is a video installation of 8 single channel hand drawn animated films and in an edition of 10. The film is meant to be a satire about the current world economic crisis.
Douche Bag City is a hopeless place where the greedy villains of society are imprisoned for their atrocities committed against the community. There is neither hope nor escape from Douche Bag City. There are no exits and there is no chance for salvation, only punishment and torture. Douche Bag City’s prisoners are defenseless against the increasingly barbaric creatures and demons. Money, stocks and wealth are meaningless in this city.
Dick Richman is the main character of the videos. He is a greedy, dishonest, and selfish Wall Street employee who has been banished to live in Douche Bag City. His 3D characteristics are developed through video game engineering, which leave the viewer with the impression that they are part of a video game.
The video consists of several chapters; each represents a mission for the character. His ultimate goal is to survive different challenges, but the animation films are set up in a way that Dick Richman can’t win. In fact in each mission he will be killed either by spiders, monsters, or zombies, and at the end of each chapter a different ‘Game Over, Mission Failed’ drawing will appear on the screen.
In the past four years, Federico Somi has been entirely focused on developing hand-drawn animated videos. He immediately felt very comfortable with the medium, and began to construct very ambitious projects, resulting in 4 animated films within the past 3 years. The method Solmi uses is traditional, but the combination of 3-D animation, hand drawn imagery and an online collaboration with Russell Lowe, a New Zealand-based artist and professor of Digital Design at Wellington University, is what makes this work unique and revolutionary. Lowe is in charge of transforming the hand drawn storyboard by Solmi into 3D footage.
He typically uses a combination of traditional key-frame animation and real-time animation with computer gaming engines. They discuss the adjustments to the 3D footage through online conferences and once they are satisfied, Solmi prints out the final footage as a series of frames and begins to draw out the sequence. In order to develop a 4-minute video, Solmi needs to execute approx 1200, 8.5 x 11 inch, handmade colored drawings, which will take approximately 12 months to create.
Once the drawings are complete, he scans each one into the computer and sends them back to Lowe. They then edit the frames and add Solmi’s selected audio portion. This method allows the video-animation to have the perspective and special effect of a modern videogame, but at the same time maintain the integrity of a drawing. The final video incorporates hand drawn textures applied to digital models that are compiled within a contemporary computer game this structure in turn is then overlaid with the hand drawings. These are then inserted into the video game structure.
The result is an animation with dynamic perspectives and complex camera angles that possesses a visual quality that is absolutely unique.
Image: Federico Solmi, Douche Bag City, 2009.Color and sound DVD, 1.30 min, Edition of 10
Opening, Saturday, January 9 from 6-9 pm
LMAKprojects
139 Eldridge Street, New York
Gallery hours: Wednesday through Saturday from 11am till 6 pm
Sunday from 12 till 6pm and by appointment