Accomplished computer-animation artist James Duesing, an associate professor in Carnegie Mellon’s School of Art, has been selected as the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts’ (PCA) 2004 Artist of the Year. An exhibition of his work will run through Nov. 17 in PCA galleries.

Duesing will display five “theatres” in the galleries and will also present some earlier hand-drawn flipbooks and storyboards in adjacent exhibit space.

"I'm honored that the center would choose to feature my animated work as its Artist of the Year. It is rare for me to have the opportunity to screen my animations in a gallery setting. Being singled out this way, in the city where I have made my home, really makes me feel like a contributing member of the vital art community that has enriched my life here in Pittsburgh,” Duesing said.

Duesing showed his computer-animated short “Tender Bodies” in March at the “Outstanding Short Films from International Festivals” program at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) at the Gramercy Theatre. This was Duesing’s fifth animation to screen at MOMA.

“Tender Bodies” imagines a world of genetically altered animated characters created with sophisticated animation that Duesing says play on basic human emotions and fears. The animated short is produced without dialogue and concentrates on universal human visual expressions that transcend language. The film takes its viewers on a visual journey, following characters on an exploratory voyage of complex relationships.

The 35mm film has high production values, including three-dimensional animation and Dolby Digital surround sound. Duesing says its unusual characters and fragmented storyline are a counterpoint to a broadly exposed Hollywood feature animation.

“Visually it is playfully constructed with environments that constantly shift and morph into each other,” said Duesing, who has been working with computer animation since the mid-1980s. “When I was making ‘Tender Bodies’ I was thinking about a future where there could be all kinds of creatures that are the results of genetic testing and how genetic experimentation could become an elite hobby, or type of entertainment.

“In the production I really wanted to react against the musical tracks and simplistic storylines that dominate so much animation today. So I tried to make a project that is a lot like a cartoon but is also enigmatic with stark audio and a resolution that isn’t fully spelled out,” he added.

“Tender Bodies” was on tour throughout the country as one of the featured films in the Black Maria Film Festival, which will end this summer at the Los Angeles Art Association. Duesing also toured “Tender Bodies” around the world, bringing it to venues such as France’s Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. In April he showed the film at the 12th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film in Germany.

Duesing’s work has been exhibited in such diverse venues as The Sundance Film Festival, PBS, SIGGRAPH, The Berlin Video Festival, MTV, Shanghai Animation Festival, Film Forum and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. His work is held in collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Goethe Memorial Museum, Tokyo; the UCLA Film Archive, Los Angeles; and The Israel Museum. He was also featured on Absolut Vodka's Web site about the history of animation.

Duesing has received numerous awards and grants including funding from Creative Capital, an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts and a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts. He has been co-director of Carnegie Mellon’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, which is a center for interdisciplinary collaboration between arts and sciences.



Related Links:
James Duesing
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
Tender Bodies
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Black Maria Film Festival
Black Maria Film Festival
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival
UCLA Film Archive
The Israel Museum
Absolut Vodka
Creative Capital
STUDIO for Creative Inquiry