Lament by Sean Vicary

Dessicated toads form a danse macabre. May bugs orbit a rotten apple. Feathers, pine cones and autumn leaves twirl against a backdrop of the landscape they originate from. Brooding scenery, nature close-ups and animated organic forms are interspersed with spoken word and folk-music. Lament by artist Sean Vicary is an animation currently showing at Kettles Yard in Cambridge.

Elegiac, lively and surreal, the film is part of a group exhibition curated by experimental art organisation Aid & Abet. The show is open until 24 February. In Aid & Abet's gallery guide Vicary writes that Lament 'describes the silence and ruin of Prince Cynddylan's home after his death. My work is primarily concerned with ideas of internal and external 'landscape' and our increasingly politicised interaction with the 'natural' world. I use found objects and fragments of detritus to explore this relationship.'

With its close attention to moss, dew-drops and spider webs, sunlight, shadow and wind, Lament is a poignant and contemplative nature poem. The artist's eye sees details echoed in his landscape, such as a heart-shaped rotten apple that looks like rock, or a newt's spine that echoes willow leaves and a wooden window-frame. But the crazy parade of animated animals reminds me of surrealists such as Dali and Jan Svankmajer, or the glorious 1970s Butterfly Ball illustrations by Alan Aldridge and William Plomer. Weird and wonderful. Watch it on Vimeo via the link below.


http://aidandabet.co.uk/

http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/ky/

http://vimeo.com/user2223315/lament