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Oral Fixations

James Duesing

2005 00:05:23 United StatesEnglishColorStereo16:9HD video
Tags:
Animation, Consumer culture, Humor

Description

Oral Fixations is a single channel video installation that evolves over a seven hour time period. The project is a darkly humorous look at a habit of endless consumption and the resulting accumulation of waste. A narrative gradually emerges from the on-screen action that depicts a large mouthed character who dances while flossing its one protruding tooth. A conveyor belt regularly delivers factory-farm fresh hams that the character delights in taking one large bite from and then tossing aside. Over the duration of the piece the hams begin to pile up in the room until at the end of seven hours the room is filled with the refuse of this gluttony. The viewer is encouraged to revisit the piece periodically throughout the day and see how the discarded hams build an oddly humorous environment of waste around the character.

This project was created and produced by an interdisciplinary team of artists, actors, and computer scientists:
James Duesing, artist
Jessica Hodgins, computer scientist
Bum Lee, artist
Moshe Mahler, artist
Jay Oberski, actor
Sang Il Park, computer scientist
David Tinapple, artist

The title offered here is a 5 minute 23 second edited version. The complete seven-hour animation of Oral Fixations is available by request. Contact Video Data Bank with inquiries. 

About James Duesing

James Duesing has worked in many forms of animation, from traditional hand drawn and early digital work to 3D and motion capture projects. He has explored animation individually and collaboratively in film and digital forms along with its integration into installation, web eBook and print.

In his book HYPERANIMATION DIGITAL IMAGES AND VIRTUAL WORLDS, animation historian Robert Russett describes Duesing’s work this way: “Characteristically composed of dark fantasy worlds and strange hybrids of animals and humans, Duesing’s digital animation offers comical and eccentric reflections on human interactions and desires in an increasingly violent and polluted world. On one level his imagery is composed of entertaining cartoon-like characters in various kinds of richly rendered environments. On another level his work probes serious sociological issues in a way that is at once provocative and disturbing.”