Blue of Noon
Blue of Noon, 2020
Duration: 1:30
Gouache on paper, animated short
Exhibited without music as part of Ritualized Days at Peephole Cinema
In the hand-drawn animation Blue of Noon, the shadows cast by a collection of items on a table suggest time passing and hint at the life and daily activities of an unseen person. Several vignettes are depicted, based on the artist's actual dining/work table, and correspond to different times of day.
At noon, objects lose their shadows, making them appear unmoored and, without a person present to manipulate them, startlingly themselves--just things. Midday has an ancient connection with something called "acedia," a psychological problem among monks and other ascetics who maintained a solitary life, but could be applied to modern lives of office workers, artists, or married people. Acedia is described as a lull in energy, a sad restlessness, a directionless feeling associated with working hard without any reward, being overwhelmed by the future and bored by the present. In this short animation, we're able to break through this uneasy noontime period and resume the banal daily tasks of working, eating, and living.