NOTE: This poster is still available from OIAF store! Click the poster above to go to the OIAF site.
Ahh, the man behind "Ring of Fire", one of my fave shorts of all time. Andreas hails from Germany, schooled in Stutgart, and is one fine animator, creating darkly beautiful shorts, music videos, kid's toons, you name it. Enough with the talk, let's see some of his stuff, eh? Here's "Ring of Fire", presented in two parts courtesy of Youtuber Luzliquida.
"Ring of Fire" is at once easy and hard to describe...a sexually charged western-themed short featuring two hombres, one a cool-hands bully and the other a wide-eyed fish out of water sidekick, it's got a dead-sexy soundtrack and visuals that are approachable surreal. It's at once obvious and elusive, a pornographic coming of age tale that offers much more than it's visuals suggest, showing the coarsness and banality of human sexuality on the surface, and the beauty lying beneath the surface. I seem to recall Hykade telling an interviewer about his use of prison imagery as inspiration...it adds an instantly visual sexual charge that makes the potential of sex seem at once terrifying, ludicrous and carnivalesque. The use of the first visit to a brothel in the ol' west as an underlying theme is a masterstroke, disassembling the western and human sexuality in one fell swoop. And like 'We Lived in Grass", it's a dark but redemptive tale, taking us into the heart of dark desire and dysfunction and carrying us out the other side to...enlightenment? Hard to say, but you always seem to walk away from a Hykade film feeling a lil' brighter, but not knowing exactly why. It's damn fine stuff, and my fave Hykade film.
His poster belies his darker nature, somewhat...it's a slice of bright orange-and-earthtone toony goodness. Andreas does a lot of kid's animation as well as his studies of human nature. His excellent 'Tom' series of web shorts are great kid-friendly fare, and a great showcase of the dood's range. Go check out his site, http://www.hykade.de/.
Off fer the long weekend! We've been damn busy here at Splashworks and at TAIS for that matter (lots of great news, can't talk about it now) so posts have been a lil' sparse, but I'll have more poster goodness and a bit of an essay about Ottawa and the fest next week. Go have the beer.
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