The Simpson Verdict

source: atcberkeleyedu
ABSTRACT
Since its commercial emergence in the 1930s, animation in the United States was treated as a category of cartoons. Even animation that found its audience outside of the mainstream made use of stereotypical cartoon attributes such as narrativity and caricature. American artists Robert Breer and Lawrence Jordan were exceptions, producing bodies of work that investigate animation as a visual language outside the cartoon tradition. Today, thanks to consumer video and animation software, a growing number of artists in the US and elsewhere are reimagining animation as an art form on par with other contemporary art practices.

Kota Ezawa has produced his own animations since 2000. Coming out of studies in Fine Art programs in Europe and the US, his animations deal with abstraction and mediated perceptions of reality through reconstructions of existing films and videos. In this lecture, Ezawa will present his work in the context of 20th Century avant-garde animation.

BIO
Ezawa’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery in London, Artpace in San Antonio, The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Murray Guy Gallery in New York and Haines Gallery in San Francisco. He participated in exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art in New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, SF MOMA, Andy Warhol Museum and Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. His animations were included in the 2005 Shanghai Biennale and will be presented in the upcoming Sao Paulo Biennial. He received a Tiffany Foundation Award in 2003 and the SECA Art Award in 2006. Ezawa is Assistant Professor of Media Arts at the California College of the Arts.
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source: hoyesarte

– The Simpson Verdict, 2002. Kota Ezawa. Recrea meticulosamente, fotograma a fotograma, secuencias animadas de televisión, cine e historia del arte, utilizando programas básicos de dibujo digital y animación, en una estética estilizada que alude a la pintura Pop o Alex Katz. Ezawa recrea en animación el veredicto de O.J. Simpson utilizando como fuente secuencias filmadas en el tribunal y manteniendo el audio original. La artificialidad estilística de esta obra subraya la “fabricación” del espectáculo histórico y, paradójicamente, preserva el poder de los acontecimientos originales. La capacidad que tiene este artista de arrancar una auténtica emoción basada en algo artificial evidencia su lealtad con los maestros del Pop, como Warhol o Lichtenstein.
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source: fotocolectaniawordpress

KOTA EZAWA es el siguiente artista que presentamos en nuestra sección de “In Focus” dedicada a la exposición de videoarte “Chorus”, con obras procedentes de la colección Martin Z. Margulies

La obra de Kota Ezawa se centra en la recreación meticulosa, fotograma a fotograma, de secuencias animadas de televisión, cine e historia del arte, utilizando programas básicos de dibujo digital y animación, en una estética altamente estilizada que alude a la pintura Pop o Alex Katz.

En The Simpson Verdict, Ezawa recrea en animación el veredicto de O.J. Simpson utilizando como fuente secuencias filmadas en el tribunal y manteniendo el audio original.La artificialidad estilística de esta obra subraya la “fabricación” del espectáculo histórico y, paradójicamente, preserva el poder de los acontecimientos originales. La capacidad que tiene Ezawa de arrancar una auténtica emoción basada en algo artificial evidencia su lealtad con los maestros del Pop, como Warhol o Lichtenstein.

De los múltiples proyectos que ha realizado Ezawa, a continuación os proponemos ”The History of Photography Remix”, en el que Ezawa muestra toda una serie de iconos de la historia de la fotografía que el artista traslada a ilustración, usando una técnica depurada y minimalista. Este proyecto está recogido en el libro homónimo e incluye textos de Lars Bang Larsen y Chus Martínez.
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source: workshopresidence

Kota Ezawa is a San Francisco-based artist who often reworks images from popular culture, film and art history, stripping them down to their core elements. His simplified versions remain easily recognizable and potent, a process that illuminates the hold certain images have on their viewers. Working in a range of mediums, such as digital animation, slide projections, lightboxes, paper cut-outs, collage, print, and wood sculptures, Ezawa maintains a keen awareness of how images shape our experience and memory of events. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Hayward Gallery Project Space, London; Artpace San Antonio, San Antonio; and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. He participated in group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. At Workshop Residence Kota creates a collection of wrapping paper.