Film of Octopuses | Irish Artist's Film Index

Film of Octopuses

Bea McMahon


Artist's biography

Bea McMahon

Synopsis

'Armed with a pair of flippers and a plastic bag, I went to the Calanques near Marseilles where Jean Painlevé made his amazing film The lovelife of the octopus. In Film of Octopuses 2013, footage of an underwater journey is interrupted by sequences of crude animation drawn directly on the 8mm film. These marks transpire to be drawn with octopus ink and form something like text in motion. No octopus appears in Film of Octopuses, but their presence is registered and it becomes as if they themselves hold the camera and have become little structuralist filmmakers.'

(Text by the artist, sourced on Dec 31st 2016)


Images

Details
Title

Film of Octopuses

Year

2013

Form

Short, Combination live action and animation

Key phrases

landscape, lyrical, painlevé, jean, sea life

Language

No dialogue

Duration

00:03:00

Original formats

Physical: Super 8mm (painted with octopus ink), 18fps, Digital copy also available

Aspect ratio

4:3

Colour

Colour

Sound

No

Supported by Kildare County Council Arts Service, the Arts Council of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland.
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