Notes from the Underground Part Six — From Mary Ellen Bute to Pierre Hébert, Animation in a Different Key! | AWN

Notes from the Underground Part Six — From Mary Ellen Bute to Pierre Hébert, Animation in a Different Key!

In this final installment of articles exploring animation as commercial entertainment and as an art form, Jean Detheux heralds a group of animators who listened to their own music and delivered it up on the animated screen.

By Jean Detheux | Monday, June 30, 2003 at 12:00 am

Posted In | Magazines: AnimationWorld | Columns: DigitalNotes

Pierre was kind enough to make a short excerpt available for this article, an excerpt from the recent European tour of Between Science and Garbage. This one comes from the show given at ICA in London on February 24, 2003.

His book, L'ange et l'automate (The Angel and the Automaton) is a must read not only for animators, but also for any artists and those who like/need to reflect on the nature of existence, of perception and art, of meaning. I am confident this book will soon be available in English as well (only French so far) and I heartily recommend it to all.

Pierre is a master in the real sense of the term, the likes of which I had only known personally when working in New York near artists like Bill De Kooning, Philip Guston and Mercedes Matter.

Pierre has developed a multi-layered approach to "animation" (this is, I believe, too narrow a term to describe his current work) that is very fragmented, and intentionally so. He demonstrates an uncanny ability to function efficiently within unresolved dilemmas, teaching by example how to carry on with the journey even (especially!) if the road has come to an end.

In his book, he comes back several times to the following sentence, "Faire son possible face à l'impossible" (to do one's best in front of the impossible). Readers may recall my referring, more than once, to Camus', "the failure shall be the measure of success," and to Giacometti's, "if the goal is out of reach, at least one can get closer."

This makes Pierre yet another Sysiphus, and I believe he shows that we can imagine Sysiphus happy, or at least being involved with his infinite task consciously and intentionally.

My first "Notes from the Underground" installment was titled Animation: Prozac, or Kyosaku? and there's no doubt in my mind that Pierre is not tracing/following the "Prozac path."

Intelligence was once defined as not how much one knows how to do, but rather how one can function when not knowing what to do.

In that sense, Pierre is a very intelligent man besides being also extremely "cultivated" (cultivé in French). He demonstrates by how he lives and works that "humanism" isn't dead yet!

Between Science and Garbage.
Image © Pierre Hébert and sound © Bob Ostertag.

Given that we started with Mary Ellen Bute, whose work, in one way or another, has made possible (not necessarily directly) what most of the people presented in this article have managed to unearth, I have asked each one of them to tell me what she represents to them. (Their remarks appear below.)

Georges Detheux: "Cool! Nice movie, with old music."

Martine Chartrand: "At first, I thought I did not know her. Then, seeing the clips you showed me, I thought wow, another woman animator, and a good one at that! I remembered seeing some of her films at OIAF in 1998. Very poetic work, I must see ALL her work! I first thought she was working on a computer, but soon I realized that it was "hand made." Wow, I must really get to see all her work and read the words about her."

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Thanks a lot. I needed that.

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Daniel Poeira (not verified) | Tue, 07/08/2003 - 00:00 | Permalink

To Tony Saliste: You say: “yes, pablum, as you call it, is pervasive today... but, like they say about tv, that's what the remote is for. mindless stupidity is present in many areas, and all some are capable of... leave them to it.” Tony, zapping is only as good as that which we can zap to. There are practically no alternatives to pabulum these days, the “suits” have managed, through decades of enforced dumbing down programming, to create expectations in the minds of the viewers so that pabulum is what is mostly expected (and offered). Read the comments to my six articles, time and again you will see this visceral reaction to my positing “Art” as important and distinct from (indeed "better than") “entertainment,” accusing me of being “elitist.” Animation is this amazing medium that is being totally swamped by mindless stupidity, “escapism” (“Prozac”) is the dominant force in it, and I most certainly see no openness to something a bit more “mature,” more life-sustaining. Even animation festivals are under the crunch of budget cuts unless they go even more into commercial servitude. And as for TV, that is utterly hopeless, when was the last time you had a chance to see quality animation on it, with or without cable? You say: “the problem, and i think you will agree, is so much of it is 'published' and deemed as 'art'... perhaps to them it is. others of us may not 'like' that, but, so what? if no one pays attention to it, it, too, shall pass. when the 'suits' have squeezed the last nickle out of any fad, true 'art' will survive.” Indeed, we are in a situation that is quite amazing, the “brainwashing” has been so very successful, the expectations have been shaped so “well,” and the frame of reference contained even “better” (the Weltanschauung), the more one focuses on intrinsic worth and inherent universal “stuff,” the more one appears to be an “outsider.” As I said in some of my previous writing, the basic belief is that “the eye works like a camera and we all see the same thing.” That is likely why so many “different” major animation productions actually look the same to me, they all are born of the same world view. You say: “if it takes another 50 years, i say, have at it, knock yourselves out. just don't expect to make a fan out of me.” You must be a lot younger than me, I most definitely do not have 50 years ahead of me, far from it. Besides, why should one wait? If one can switch from being a mere viewer to becoming a doer, now’s the (only?) time!

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Jean Detheux (not verified) | Sat, 07/05/2003 - 00:00 | Permalink

jean, what you say is true, if a bit too far in the other direction... i'm sure your intent was not to stifle exploration of the media, including animation and music. there are more than two sides to animation, as in all art, stories, or lies. yes, pablum, as you call it, is pervasive today... but, like they say about tv, that's what the remote is for. mindless stupidity is present in many areas, and all some are capable of... leave them to it. the problem, and i think you will agree, is so much of it is 'published' and deemed as 'art'... perhaps to them it is. others of us may not 'like' that, but, so what? if no one pays attention to it, it, too, shall pass. when the 'suits' have squeezed the last nickle out of any fad, true 'art' will survive. if it takes another 50 years, i say, have at it, knock yourselves out. just don't expect to make a fan out of me.