From psychedelic backyards and throbbing underground raves to rural life and the stillness of personal reflection, these five animations take you on a diverse array of unexpected journeys.
‘The Magic Arts: Australian Animation from the 1970s to Now’ is a major survey of the last five decades of animation in Australia highlighting works from commercial studios and independent animators alike. ‘The Magic Arts’ screens as part of the APT10 cinema program at GOMA’s Australian Cinémathèque until 25 April 2022.
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#1 Martha the Monster
It isn’t easy being orange! Using a combination of puppets, costumes and CGI, Martha the Monster 2017 is the story of one monster’s desperate quest to find her place in the world, when maybe it’s the world that needs to find its place around her.
#2 Throat Notes
Animator Felix Colgrave creates vibrant, psychedelic landscapes that are a feast for the eyes. Filled with singing flora, magical green bell frogs and computer literate possums, Throat Notes 2020 invites us into the secret lives of the plants and critters that live amongst us.
#3 Congregation
Pulsing beats, strobe lighting and a darkly menacing tone, Congregation 2021 by Nick Simpson could easily be mistaken for a scene out of a Gaspar Noé film. With its high-contrast tones and brief interstices of surrealist imagery, Congregation captures the agony and ecstasy of the underground club scene. (Please note that this animation contains flashing images.)
#4 Chainsaw
From hazardous mechanical equipment, to a rodeo bull named ‘Chainsaw’, this multi-award winning animation is a tapestry of poignant tales that explore the fragility of life and how it can turn on a chainsaw-edge.
#5 The Journey
Set amidst a dark netherworld filled with sharp cliff-faces and a gravel ocean, Robert Gudan’s poetic stop-motion animation The Journey 1995 is meditative tale of one man’s spiritual and psychological quest into the unknown.
Dip into our Cinema blogs / View the ongoing Australian Cinémathèque program
QAGOMA is the only Australian art gallery with purpose-built facilities dedicated to film and the moving image. The Australian Cinémathèque at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) provides an ongoing program of film and video that you’re unlikely to see elsewhere, offering a rich and diverse experience of the moving image, showcasing the work of influential filmmakers and international cinema, rare 35mm prints, recent restorations and silent films with live musical accompaniment on the Gallery’s Wurlitzer organ originally installed in Brisbane’s Regent Theatre in November 1929.
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