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Protein / Animate Everything
Animated GIFs spread like wildfire in the early days of the net. As we away on the blazing fast 56K modem speeds of the day, the junky little motion clips – each containing a series of frames running in running in a continuous loop – stood in for our inability to download real video. They were in every creepy religious chain email your aunt sent, on Myspace pages, and they even dotted the e-porn landscape like devious 1990s kinetoscopes. Then high-speed internet hit, and they mostly faded into the sunset – save their obnoxious flashing banner ad cousins – replaced by high quality images and real video.
But it turns out they have a longer shelf life than just their technical simplicity. They’re somewhere between films and photos, and as such offer a typological bridge between the two. Over the past several years, especially with the advent of Tumblr, designers and all sorts of other people one the web have brought them back, someitmes to pretty spectacular effect. And several artists are even working in the medium (can I really call it that?).
Opening tonight, the endlessly clever UK creative firm Protein has curated the first exhibition of some of the most notable work being done in the format. The time seems right, after all. Artists include Parra, Jiro Bevis, Mimi Leung, Nous Vous Collective, DDF, Will Robson Scott, Tyrone Le Bon, as well as several others.
Opening tonight, 21 July at Protein’s gallery space on 18 Hewett street in Shoreditch, London, just off Curtain Road. Vernissage starts at 7pm, and the show will run until the 15th of August.
Tag Christof – Animated .GIF courtesy Protein
