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A ring of black text on a transparent background, reading 'Monday Short'.

Jake Fried’s Headspace (2014)

Maybe the most impressive thing about Skhizein is how Clapin mines empathy and humour from the same images.

Detailed illustration of a face with three eyes looking at the camera. In the background there are various walls and doors/windows. From Headspace by Jack Fried (2014)

NOTE: This Monday short was originally uploaded on September 18, 2017. We are re-uploading Peter Hemminger's Monday Shorts until I exhaust this fantastic archive and resource.

It’s hard to pick just one of Jake Fried’s films to spotlight. All of them share the same basic structure—not so much a traditional animation as a rapidly evolving print, a morphing picture more than a moving one. All-seeing eyes, angular geometry and cigarettes all feature regularly, sometimes lingering through multiple images, sometimes disappearing before they even register.

For a process that appears to be rooted in stream-of-consciousness, Fried’s sense of composition is immaculate. Pause the image at any frame and you’ll have a psychedelic print worthy of framing (or using for a stoner-rock album cover). And if a minute of his masterful morphing isn’t enough, be sure to click through to Fried’s Vimeo account for plenty more where this came from.

dir. Jake Fried

Hand-drawn animation with ink, gouache, white-out and coffee.

2014