When black-and-white photographs are infused with vibrant colours, the blurred memories gradually become more distinct. Are you looking at the full picture of history or just a glimpse of its fraction? How do you measure the distance between individuals and within the collective? From picture frames to old photographic papers, Lei Lei unlocks the possibilities of animations through the process of collecting and recreating old objects. Through repeated scanning, colouring, and printing, he constructs numerous diverging paths in his own world of light and shadows, guiding viewers to get in touch with aspects of memory that have been overlooked. The following is the artist’s sharing on how animation can reconstruct history and memories.
Q: What is the personal significance of Recycled 2013 and Hand Colored No.2?
A: These works prompted me to reflect on my use of visual materials. Before creating Recycled 2013, I mainly made animations by drawing frame by frame to create the imagery. But after I began treating photographs as archival materials, I realised the charm of animation is not limited to the beauty of the imagery; it also lies in your working process. This later influenced how I made A Bright Summer Diary and Breathless Animals. The audience members are not just seeing visual effects on screen—they are also looking at the thought process of the artist. Possibly, this is also the power of films.
Q: Tell us more about your experience in collecting and restoring photographs.
A: In my collaboration with Thomas Sauvin, I amassed a lot of materials. I also collected many things at my studio, including old books and films on top of photographs. I find the entire process very meaningful. The way we worked on the film was like forming a snowball, accumulating materials without ends until we could assemble them together, like playing with a Rubik’s cube. For me, the process of collecting materials is even more important than the end product.
Q: Why are your works often focused on the relationship between family and society?
A: Animation films as archives can reflect the dynamics between personal memories and collective memories. Sometimes, collective memories would deprive us of our perspectives as a private individual. The work of an artist does not aim to accurately narrate history or precisely depict personal memories in detail. Rather, it seeks to challenge the authority and discourse surrounding ‘memory’ and construct a hidden passage within it, much like a garden with branching paths, eliciting greater questioning from the audience.
Lei Lei’s animation workshop is one of the activities of M+’s inaugural Asian Avant-garde Film Festival (AAGFF). His work Hand Colored No.2 (2015) is part of the ‘Hands-On Animation’ segment.
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