Toby Christian, Trippy Scroller, PEER, Wednesday 13th June, 7-8.30pm
Through the live animation of drawn and written string characters, Toby Christian’s Trippy Scroller reimagines the form of the scroll, extending the artists recurring string motif, through the use of domestic archival apparatus.
A laminator is remodelled to drive a roll of ersatz-celluloid over the lens of an outmoded overhead projector, creating a slow-moving animated procession of frozen string shapes, secluded in their pouches. This long sequence of interrelated forms has been carefully arranged by the artist to explore figurative, linguistic and political registers of cotton string, and integrates examples of string figures, some of the oldest recorded storytelling devices in human history.
This scrolling animation is accompanied by a live sound track mixed by Christian. Contact microphones attached to the equipment will amplify and alter the slow humming of the motor, and the grinding, masticating noises of the plastic as it repeatedly passes through the rollers of the laminator.
The looped animation is approximately 16 minutes in length.
The artist would like to thank Habda Rashid, Gabriel Stones, Jack Symes and all at PEER.
Documentation: Jack Symes
