Synopsis
Suwami Nogami's minimalistic line drawing piece, Imagination Practice, is described as a perpetual "thought loop." It shows an artist seated before a window; on the desk in front of him lies a self-portrait resembling a tiny mirror image. The window frame and the blue sky with drifting clouds are colored in, but the artist's figure remains uncolored. The soundtrack mimics a skipping record, interrupted by comedic springing sounds akin to Bugs Bunny, as the image endlessly loops from the establishing shot into the "drawing." A philosophical work, Imagination Practice explores the circular exchange between an artist and his creation.
Background
Released in 2005 on DVD, Thinking and Drawing features a wide selection of animation styles from line drawing to CGI manipulated photographs. The subject matter ranges from feminist allegory to ghostly tales. Although each film has a short running time of between 5 and 17 minutes, the depth of meaning in each is truly astonishing. The films have shown together and separately at festivals in Europe, North America, and Australia.