Megan and Murray

Siart 2005, the International Bolivian Biennial, Opens Friday, Oct. 28

Our animation, The Grasp Hand and Walking Method, is included in the exhibition.

Grasp Hand and Walking Method: Final Film Still

We just shipped the Grasp Hand and Walking Method to the 2005 Bienal Internacional de Arte, SIART in La Paz, Bolivia. We'll exhibit this animation on our other site, www.meganandmurraymcmillan.com, in a couple of weeks.

Er, we decided to toss the background curved objects seen in previous GHWM set shots because they were a little too much. Sometimes it takes taking a wrong turn to find the right one.

As a sidenote, I'm at a loss to know what to call these short videos/movies/films. "Video" is the most accurate and has more historical precedent, however seems too informal. "Movies" are what Hollywood makes. "Film," my favorite, seems inaccurate [at least] and inflated [at worst]. I'm hoping that the ubiquitous "film" becomes the new "album."

Grasp Hand and Walking Method: Construction 5

The man in the boat, and the people lifting the man in the boat completed. We film tonight.

Grasp Hand and Walking Method: Construction 4

Detail of the man in the boat with the waves and trees.

Grasp Hand and Walking Method: Construction 3

The man in the boat, nearly finished.

Grasp Hand and Walking Method: Construction 2

Detail of the boat.

Grasp Hand and Walking Method: Construction 1

Our current project, GHWM, is now underway. It's a stop-frame animation--these are images of the set.

The Next Project

Model for The Grasp Hand and Walking Method, 2004

We are now working on a project for the 2005 Bienal Internacional de Arte, SIART, at the National Museum of Art in La Paz, Bolivia titled The Grasp Hand and Walking Method. It's a stop-frame animation based on the model we made last year for California State University at Long Beach's Boundary Crossings exhibition.

In the final animation, based on an interview with a WW2 US Marine who landed on Iwo Jima, costumed characters create archetypes, similar to Jungian sandplay characters. Though the character's interaction with the set and each other, the abstract accounting of one person's war-time experience is revealed through metaphoric action to create a psychological profile of war-time experience: a situation when life is keyed up to the highest intensity and interpersonal relationships become both absurdly surreal and more intimate than others formed on the basis of the quotidian.

The model introduced the characters, the final animation will focus more on their environment and will include text from the interview.

The Grasp Hand and Walking Method Video

The Grasp Hand and Walking Method video is now on the web.

You'll need the free and easy Shockwave Player to see it. If you need it go here.

The Grasp Hand and Walking Method

This is a final image of the Grasp Hand and Walking Method at the Boundary Crossings Show at Cal State Long Beach. We'll get the video on the web within a month. I'll try to do it sooner but this is just that time of the year when everything is crazy. In my head things seem so easy. Just put the video on the web. But then there are the details. The killer is the details. The killer is always the details. But then again, it's the details that get me interested.