Cecilia Lundqvist - Videos 1994-2009

Area of Use
Digital Video, 5'12"
B&W, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2009

The video "Area of Use" is an illustration of a housewife’s inner thoughts about alternative ways of using her most common working tools. It is also a manifestation of a sealed existence that exposes a mind which gives a sense of being trapped in a treadmill. This work is closely related to the video "Oh, I’m So Happy".

Oh, I'm So Happy
Digital Video, 3'07"
B&W, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2008

"Oh, I’m So Happy" is an animated video where we meet a middle-aged woman who is living in total isolation, with an extreme loneliness as a result. The woman performs a monologue, in which she tries her best to convince us about how happy and content she is with her present situation. However, her attempt is totally shallow and transparent.

Watch an excerpt on Vimeo ››

Told You So
Digital Video, 2'05"
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2008

"Told You So" is an animated video, showing a psychological power-struggle between two people. During a short dialogue, that from the start seems rather harmless, a provoking and manipulative tactic starts to shine through. The purpose with this tactic is to achieve a result and gain triumph.

Watch an excerpt on Vimeo ››

We Could Have Helped
Digital Video, 1'57”
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2008

"We Could Have Helped" is an animated video. Three men in costumes represent rich men with power and possession. People who actually have the possibility to lend a helping hand, but in this video they choose to play innocent bystanders, all this while they are enjoying the situation. The men in the video are totally unaware of their shortcomings, and continue with their lives without taking any notice of these.

Dead End
Digital Video, 4'38"
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2006

The video "Dead End" is an animated illustration of a completely locked situation, without a chance to find a solution. The imagery in the video is quite static and is primarily created to turn the focus to the dialogue. The two characters in the video, a woman and a man, act as eachother’s opposites, both ready for the fight. Even though there is a clear dialogue between the two parts, they are unable to communicate. Of course, this creates no winner, but the result is rather two powerless losers. "Dead End" works as a reflection of the society in which we live today.

Watch an excerpt on Vimeo ››

Scratch and Sniff
Digital Video, 33'53"
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2006

"Scratch and Sniff" is an animated video that illustrates a retrospect of the years 1971 to 1983, the years when I was growing up. The film makes sharp turns between short memos from my own life, and reports of different criminal offences from the same period of time. This puts my innocent and trivial childhood memories side by side with the cruel reality of the outside world, and creates a different perspective of this passed time. To give the work a more documentary feel, the images are made to look more like they came from a photocopier rather than being drawings. "Scratch and Sniff" currently only exists in a Swedish version.

Making Pancakes
Digital Video, 4'59"
B&W, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2005

"Making Pancakes" is an animated video, showing a woman and a man in a totally unbalanced relationship. At times we see a seemingly everyday course of events, and other times they are in a more threatening situation. The man is filled with self-satisfaction and yet he shines from an uncertainty and a longing for acknowledgement. The woman acts in a numb and routine way, doing all she can to uphold the facade. By changing the standard and placing the domestic violence outdoors, where it’s visible, and the upholding of the perfect facade hidden behind the closed doors of the home, the absurdity of this behaviour is revealed. The trivial mistakes while making dinner serve as the catalyst of the violent outrages, they serve as the last straw.

Watch an excerpt on Vimeo ››

Finding the Right Moment
Digital Video, 4'24”
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2005

The video "Finding the Right Moment" is an animated illustration of the almost impossible difficulties that arises when one tries to get exactly on the same level as someone else.

Power Play
Digital Video, 10'55"
B&W, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2004

"Power Play" is an animated video, consisting of ten different scenes in which two men compete in emphasizing their manhood, using different attributes in a series of nonsense acts. The video comments on and clearly ridicules the stereotypes that the two characters embody in their man-to-man conversation, customs that are generally established in the western culture. The film focuses on this play of acts, to make the viewer clear on how meaningless this behavior is. When installed in a gallery a counterpoint and spectator to this part of the work is present. In this other video, containing only one scene, a completely bored woman is watching the men performing their acts.

From the Beginning
Digital Video, 1'21"
B&W, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2004

In the video "From the Beginning" the imagery contains almost no narrative parts, but is completely graphical and visual. It is in the soundtrack and speech where a story, or rather a statement, starts to develope. In this statement an unspoken group of people is described, people who have taken charge of power and decided that they are the ones to rule over others. Without ever really questioning their own acts they let things proceed as they always have…

Smile
Digital Video, 6'02"
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2003

"Smile" is an animated video that reflects a standardized society, were only one single individual has the courage to be different. This makes the rank and file react, restraining the person to keep the order. When this is not working the problem is eliminated in another way. The story is created from sampled material from an English language course, where the content originally is totally different. It’s the texts that contribute with the major narrative in the work. Also the images are coming from a totally different context, mainly advertising leaflets. It has been important for me to use existing material from my nearest surroundings, and to break these things down, and to use these fragments to create a new whole. With this I am trying to visualize and amplify something existing under the surface, but yet not completely visible.

Emblem
Digital Video, 2'27”
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2001

"Emblem" is an animated video that consists of one scenario, containing several short clips. Colourful animations illustrate the rather spartan and monotonous actions between the main characters and a couple of objects. A woman dressed in a bathing costume and white socks perform certain gymnastic movements, observed by a man dressed in a suit. The woman has several bruises, more or less visible on her body. These pictures are accompanied by a soundtrack containing a dialogue between a man and a woman. The monotonous and the repetations are recognised as well in the pictures as in the sound, and give a sense of being trapped in a treadmill. It is also in the soundtrack that the narrative is the strongest, and where an ongoing struggle of power is visualized. The viewer gets a premonition of violent acts within the safe walls of home, but if the damage is self-inflicted or not is obviously a question of interpretation, as no actual violence is being shown. Simply put – you choose to see what you want to see. The main intention with this video is to visualize an endless struggle of power, that has become a part of the normal day routine, in this case between a man and a woman.

Watch an excerpt on Vimeo ››

C
Digital Video, 2'37"
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2001

"C" is an animation that consists of five different, simply shaped scenarios. The separate scenes, presented by two drawn young girls, all reflect a slow change between something good and something evil. I want to show a possible outcome between playing children, when access, opportunity and an impuls of wanting to hurt somebody else appears at the same time. This evilness, that usually is well hidden within the feeling of innocence that a small child in general gives us, now and then shows its face and puts us in a complete state of chock and incomprehensibility.

Watch an excerpt on Vimeo ››

Absolutely Normal
Digital Video, 7'09"
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2000

"Absolutely Normal" is an animation in which two visually identical women represent one person. In seven animations they passively watch or actively perform metaphoric actions, that together symbolize and give a concrete form to a fictive separation of the human mind. The animated parts the video contains has their own titles that work as a support for the spectator without being too obvious, thanks to the phonetic text that has been used. The drawn women use the picture space like a stage where they act out what could be described as a sort of animated performances. To emphasize the triviality about these actions, the performances are done by routine and without any enthusiasm what so ever. The video’s main purpose is to make these negative human behaviours visible, and in a way give the viewer a chance of self-examination and insight. The main title is to remind us about the normality of this behaviour.

Watch an excerpt on Vimeo ››

Beware of Playing Children
Digital Video, 1'05"
Colour/B&W, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 2000

"Beware of Playing Children" is an animation involving social criticism, where two children in form of a play together reflect and illustrate the construction of a society which conceal a rare image of sickness. The story is a reaction of how incomprehensible it is when innocence turn out to be the opposite.

Rebus
Digital Video, 6'17”
Colour, Stereo, Aspect Ratio 4:3
© 1999

"Rebus" is a video that consists of six short animations, where each one is a reflection over certain diagnoses of disease, involving people in my close personal surroundings. Here, I work with the interplay between pictures and words, where the titles and the pictures each contribute as one piece of the puzzle that is formed in front of the viewer. This is developing totally individually depending on their different knowledge in language, since I’ve chosen the Latin denomination for the names of the diseases because Latin has for many years been the used language within the faculty of medicine. The diseases are of the kind that they for the eye are practically invisible . I want to evoke the spectator’s will to search for the riddle’s answer. If the solution is not the same as my own is mainly unimportant. Creating the will to search is in this way the main purpose.

"Souvenir" is an autobiographic animation that illustrates an unforgettable specific memory that shows its face. The main character in the video goes back in time and gets surprised by a deeply restored memory. She examines it and nurses it before she puts it back in the place where it belongs. The pictures are created by simple black-and-white drawings where only the most important objects are in focus, in this case the woman and her memory, this to increase the concentration to them and their interaction. The fysical room of the picture is extremely reduced to a mild gray blur to create a reversed sense of the inner space. The music play a very important part in the work, making clear and underline the intime character.

This is rather a slide−show or a change of the picture’s shape than an animated film. Although it’s created in the same technical way it does not have a dramatic ingredient. I have drawn the first picture, basing it mainly on a special photograph that for years has had my attention, where my grandfather and a for me unknown man are friendly tapping eachother’s cheeks. The main purpose with the project is to make the photo come alive, and in that way find out what happened the seconds after the photo was taken. To make the picture speak for itself, instead of the reversed, I decided to shut my own influence out from the future developement, by changing the person who is tracing, for every new picture. Consequently I asked a second person to trace my drawing and then I asked a third person to trace the second one’s and so on. To use the human error in an unconscious way, it is important not to let the person who is tracing see any other picture than the one that he or she is about to copy. To minimize a planned interference on the developement of the picture and to make it as haphazard like as possible it is very important that there is only one picture made per person. The whispering game is a term that serves well as a simile to this idea. You could also compare the investigation to a chemical chain reaction, where one substance is developing into another, which developes into a third and so on.

"Chips" is the fourth separate animation in the series where the main character is a simplified stereotype figure that represent myself. Here the girl is tempting the naive dog with a crisp and then decieves him. The video is about an euforic state of gluttony and egoism, that soon is to be developed into panic and agony, where the guilty quickly has to be found and punished. This is to project the guilt on someone else.

"Party" is the third separate animation that is included in the series, where the main character is a stylized stereotype figure that represent myself. The video is a story about a lonely and rather eccentric girl that has to deal with the question of breaking her alienation with the outer world, when an unexpected invitation to the social life suddenly drops into her letterbox. The animation tells us about the difficulty of deciding wether you want to change your situation or not, when an actual possibility is given.

"Trim" is the second separate animation of the series where the main character is a stylized black−and−white stereotype figure that represent myself. In this video the outer world expands. She has a whole house filled with personal belongings and there is even a world outside her home. During a promenade the girl finds a stray dog, which she allures to approach her and then by force takes home. There she decides to follow a book of rules when it comes to dogs appearances. The story is a reaction over people’s way of accepting other people’s opinions and following these examples without considering whether they are right or wrong.

"Disco" is the first separate animation in a series of four, where the main character is a stylized stereotype figure that represent myself. At the first glimpse, I want the animations to give the impression of being traditional films for children, to entice a feeling of innocence, but too late get the spectator aware of a more complex existence. Disco is narrated in a very spartan way, with focus on integrity and occasional personal liberation. The girl in the video puts on a body-like dress and becomes more naked than she was before, and this temporarily changes her identity. After a short moment of change she returns to her prior self.

"The Girl and the Dog" is my first animated video, and it is also the basis for my continuing interest in animation, for which it has been an important influence. "The Girl and the Dog" consists of two parts, "To Use a Ball" and "The Bath". The video is made by simple black−and−white drawings, that together create an effective animation with an unaffected story, focusing on the relationship between a naive dog and a wicked girl.

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