To create any kind of art, whether personal or commercial, without taking inspiration from the art of others that preceded it is neither a realistic nor a desirable goal. Still it seems like it might be worthwhile, or at least interesting, to track some more or less original ideas as they work their way into advertising – advertising being constantly hungry for new and attention-grabbing ideas.
This isn’t to pass judgement or cast scorn. In art (including advertising) being under an influence is nothing to be ashamed of. Appropriation can be done intelligently and elegantly (as much as it can be done crassly). And good derivative work will stand up to having its influences identified and examined.
Anyway, this time, the excellent work of graffiti artist Blu, whose animation MUTO appeared on the internet about a year ago and has since had more than 7 million views through Vimeo and YouTube. If you haven’t seen it before, you’re in for a treat.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by Blu on Vimeo.
On 15 May last year, in response to all the attention MUTO earned him, Blu wrote on his blog:
if you are asking for advertising works the answer is: NO THANKS
if you are asking for music videos the answer is: see above
Unable to recruit the original artist, advertisers have done their best without.
BBC Radio 6 Music ‘Get an earful’ promo by the BBC on Vimeo.
Lee’s story from Action for Children on YouTube.
(It’s worth mentioning that this is one of a series of, I think, very successful adverts by Action for Children.)
And here’s a music video using a similar technique (leaving the remnants of previous frames of animation visible) but using chalkboards.
Autumn Story chalk animation by Firekites on Vimeo.
