London-based animator Emanuele Kabu makes his short films very personal. He hand-draws often abstract forms, making small changes to floating geometric shapes or shifting scenery, and painstakingly scans each page after each minute adjustment. His process becomes a form of therapy, once for mind-numbing insomnia, another time for chronic anger.
His newest animation, Infinite Lust, is an embodiment of post break-up nostalgia. In the video, his close friend, writer Faye Fornasier, poetically describes the illustrated vision as, “All the places we’ve been together. With our bodies, or with my mind.” “We” in this case, refers to the significant others Kabu reflects on in each frame of the film. “I don’t know why but I started thinking about the relationships I’d had and I was having at that time,” Kabu tells The Creators Project. “What I thought was that I was always repeating the same pattern over and over again. And it wasn’t good at all. Like Chet Faker said, ‘I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast.’”
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Below is his full explanation of his feelings throughout the creation of Infinite Lust, a melancholy microcosm for the feeling of loss that assaults anyone at the end of something, be it a relationship, a college bromance, or even the final match of a youth soccer team. Thanks, Emanuele.
“This video talks about relationships and places. And probably many more things. It’s not easy to explain. I wasn’t feeling so well when I started this video.
I don’t know why but I started thinking about the relationships I’d had and I was having at that time. What I thought was that I was always repeating the same pattern over and over again. And it wasn’t good at all. Like Chet Faker said, ‘I fall in love too easily, I fall in love too fast.’
This video was a kind of ‘act’ to feel free again and to move on and look forward, or maybe just in another direction. This video was made just a few months later I moved to London, which was another big change in my life.
“I started drawing and painting all the places that were connected to all the people I loved.
The technique I have used is deeply connected to the meaning of the video as it’s very slow. Every little addition to each drawing requires time as you have to draw or paint a little change, then scan, then another change, then scan and so on, so eventually I have spent days on the same drawing. In other words, in the same place. And it felt very peaceful.
Also, each of the places was covered by a new one. It felt like I was putting all those images in a box and freeing my mind from them. The places I drew are referred to a lot to real and imaginary places, or even places where I was thinking of going or where I was hoping to go.
I ended up covering everything with black which is my favourite color. I froze them. And it felt good. Then I talked to Faye, she’s one of my best friends and we know each other since we were kids. I spoke with her for few hours about my idea and she wrote these words. I haven’t changed anything as I thought they were perfect.”
See more of Emanuele Kabu’s work on his website.
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