Announcing 2021 Artists in Residence!

Supporting research and production in animation!

TAIS is delighted to announce three artists in residence for 2021-22 who will  engage in self-directed work, towards the completion of a new short independent animated film or video. This residency comes with a combination of monetary funding and in-kind use of studio space, equipment and resources at TAIS Studios, located at 1411 Dufferin Street, in downtown Toronto.

The Residencies are 5 weeks long, taking place between May 2021 and August 2021. The selected artist(s) are awarded with $1500 in-kind towards 5 weeks of studio space, equipment and resources at TAIS Studios, and $2000 in cash funding for the project.

Callahan Bracken

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bio: Callahan Bracken is a Toronto-based Canadian filmmaker, animator and interdisciplinary artist. Through animation, his work employs experimental technique to navigate themes of queer intimacy and how identity interacts with contemporary media. He is on a leave from studying Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts. Bracken was a member of the TIFF’s youth curatorial committee (Next Wave) from 2017-2019. His work has screened at festivals internationally, including the Atlanta Film Festival, TIFF Next Wave and DC Independent Film Festival. Although his studies are on pause, Bracken has tried to stay productive in quarantine by working on pre-production for his TAIS residency project, learning how to bake and birdwatching.

Project Description

My TAIS residency project will be a short animation called A Song for the Worm Moon. The piece will be centered around recontextualizing an archival audio file that I recorded when I was studying in California. The recording is a 40 minute long audio file from March 10th 2020, the night of the first full moon in March (the worm moon). That night, I gathered my friends and we brought some instruments, rocks and blankets into a big field so we could write songs for the moon. It ended up being one of the most intimate and magical nights I can remember. The problem is, I don’t really remember it all that well. As months continue to pass stuck in quarantine, I have felt a greater push to negotiate with my memories. Reasoning with the turbulence that often accompanies nostalgia becomes both easier and more difficult when I’m surrounded by technology and modern modes of documentation. My phone, computer and similar devices all play a very important role in how I have come to understand and interpret memories. In using these texts as a foundation for my film, I’m hoping to better understand the relationship between my body and these technologies. My goal is to ultimately compile a 4-5 minute short film that is an experimental exploration of my relationship to these ideas, while also writing a visual love letter to my friends who I miss so dearly.

instagram.com/callahanbracken

 

Shary Boyle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Live animation performance detail of the artist, from Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home, 2015.

Bio:

Shary Boyle works across diverse media, including sculpture, drawing, installation and live-animation performances. She is known for her bold, fantastical explorations of the figure. Highly crafted and deeply imaginative, her practice is activated through collaboration and mentorship. Boyle’s work considers the social history of ceramic figurines, animist mythologies and folk art forms to create a symbolic, feminist and politically charged language uniquely her own.

Project Brief:

The Kaunus (Lithuania) Biennale has invited me to create a new work to be installed in the city’s Žmuidzinavičius Museum (Devils’ Museum) in November, 2021. I will use my time at TAIS to develop a short, looped animation responding to the museum’s first collected sculpture: an 18th century wooden devil lying under the sawed-off feet of St. Michael the Archangel. For my Kaunus Biennale animation project, I would like to explore imagery that questions binary notions of good and evil; and our tendency to blame the Other. The animation will feature a series of live-filmed ink drawings on transparency, and manipulated paper cut-outs for overhead projection. The final animated film will be scaled, mapped and projected to give the illusion of emerging from the actual wooden devil/feet sculpture at the Devil’s Museum.

Links:

www.sharyboyle.com

www.cafka.org/cafka20/shary-boyle-toronto-white-elephant

www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/event/shary-boyle-outside-the-palace-of-me/

Malte Stein

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Ding – a film by Malte Stein

Malte Stein is an independent animation film maker and writer based in Berlin. In 2013, he graduated from the University of Film and Television “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam Babelsberg with a diploma in animation. Before that, he studied scriptwriting and drew a lot of comic stories since the 90`s. His films “Blue Dream” (2013) and “Flood” (2018) were screened on many Festivals all over the world and won several awards.

He is currently completing his new animation film with the title “DING”, whose distribution will start approximately in April 2021.

During the 5 weeks of stay, he will develop the character and background design of his next animated film project.

Links:

https://vimeo.com/399313424

 

TAIS programming is presented with the support of the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts

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