:: 2009 :: 120cm x 150cm :: Markers on Cartridge Paper ::
Marc Azéma, a researcher at the University of Toulouse, has noted in the cave art of southern Europe that the motif of repetition occurs commonly, but with the figure of the animal slightly changed across several repetitions. These repetitions are overlaid on one another in the same space to create a confusing visual effect, but Azéma theorises that this represented the movements of the animals, and when animated, these mvoements are quite accurate to the genuine behaviours of the animals depicted. This is no surprise considering how closely the hunters watched and loved the horses and bison that were their prey, and to me, it seems quite likely that if one were viewing these images by firelight, and the torches were deftly moved by a skilled person, the animals on the walls could quite literally come alive for the viewers. Here, then, is a drawing of horses leaping which recreates the Palaeolithic visual language of animation and movement. Below this is a personal animated experiment to demonstrate how accurate these depictions were, which formed part of an art film calledAnimated Palaeolithic...
