Saturday, October 13, 2007

Naoyuki Tsuji DVD


Here is a nice after-image to the last post, Naoyuki Tsuji!! It is very hard to find information on the independent animation scene from Japan so I was very surprised to find this DVD collection of Tsuji's work!!! This is from Facets Multi-media, which is a non-profit distribution house out of Chicago that focuses on art house, foreign and hard-to-find cinema. Here is a small clip of Tsuji's film Trilogy about Clouds. Naoyuki works on a single sheet of paper with charcoal in hand as he works in an almost stream-of-conscious process. He lets the images emerge and transform out of the ghosted thoughts of childhood and memory in an almost delicate meditation of subject and medium. Erasing, blurring and drawing on top of as the last image becomes the new memory of the memory. Animation is very much like how the brain and memory function but it is interesting to add on the creative process of re-enacting that in a contemplative and intuitive way of working.

Naoyuki Tsuji has become synonymous with independent animation as the discussions about the art form are now starting to take hold. He gave a talk at the MOMA earlier this year and was apart of a brilliant exhibit this year at Parasol Gallery in London called Momentary Momentum. From the likes of William Kentridge, Kara Walker, Michael Dudok de Wit, Paul Bush and David Shrigley this exhibit establishes the role of animation in Contemporary art and the impacts on both (I noticed you can buy the catalog and dvd of this in N.A. from the New Museum). Here is a review and an excerpt of Tsuji's new film Children of the Shadows from the Dazed Digital site! Also, Naoyuki will be in a group show at the Dorsky Gallery in Long Island from November 18th to the end of January. Finally, there will be a program of Tsuji's films at this year's Aurora festival (November 7-10th). You can now view the full schedule and programs for this coming-soon festival! That should get you caught up on everything that is Naoyuki Tsuji...enjoy!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The New Momentum book and DVD is out of print, dang drat it.

Anonymous said...

actually I'm not anonymous, I just cliked the wrong thing. Its Gail here.

Anonymous said...

Nice blog! Thanks for the information, I didn´t know this animator. It´s extremely difficult to find "alternative" japanese animation. Appart from Kawamato, Kori, Yamamura and 4ÂșC, I hardly can find anything else, dvd edition or even information. You know any source for this kind of material, say Renzo Kinoshita and stuff like that?

Cathy Munroe Hotes said...

Both the US DVD and a Japan release of Tsuji's films are available at yesasia.com

http://www.yesasia.com/global/search/naoyuki-tsuji/0-0-0-bpt.48_q.naoyuki+tsuji-en/list.html

Cathy Munroe Hotes said...

I just discovered that the US DVD is a RIP OFF. See the press release on Tsuji's website http://nanimation.exblog.jp/m2009-10-01/