Kota Ezawa

Paint, Unpaint

2014

still of Paint, Unpaint, 2014

Paint and Unpaint is an animation by Kota Ezawa based on a scene from a popular 1951 film by Hans Namuth featuring Jackson Pollock. At first glance, due to the oversimplified silhouettes Ezawa employs, the connection between his animation and Namuth’s film may not be obvious. However, when seen side by side, Ezawa’s piece is a faithful reproduction of the scene—up until a point in which his sequence begins playing in reverse, effectively unpainting every brushstroke. The scene in Namuth’s film is remembered by many for its experimental nature: with the camera pointed towards the sky, Pollock paints onto a sheet of glass as Namuth films the process from the opposite side. Through this unique viewpoint, what results is a filmic device that effectively conveyed Pollock’s process of “action painting” to wide audiences. As Ezawa gives this iconic scene a new life as a digital animation, he adds an additional layer of separation from the original source of focus, which is Pollock’s paint. Ezawa’s choice to reference Namuth relates to his ongoing investigation of the symbolic power of images in the mainstream. Allegedly, Namuth was more interested in the image of Pollock than his actual work, and as the author of several photographs and the 1951 film, his own role as image-maker was essential in conveying Pollock’s process to audiences and contributing to his fame. As much as the original film is about Pollock, Ezawa’s retake is constructed around Namuth’s representation of the iconic artist, and the degree to which it was responsible for constructing his identity in our social imaginary.

Kota Ezawa borrows images from the news, art history, and pop culture and turns them into cartoon-like stories. He produces flat and two-dimensional imagery via his light-boxes, works on paper, and animations. These works are often inspired by important moments in history, such as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, the O.J. Simpson trial, and media coverage of former National Football League (NFL) player Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem as a symbol of protest. Ezawa’s animations, which he describes as “moving paintings,” make use of a labor-intensive technique that requires the artist to recreate each frame with close attention, producing hundreds of illustrations via digital drawing and animation software. He is best known for a signature style that embraces vibrant colors and simple forms, stripping detail from images to leave only essential attributes and environments. This reductive technique does not diminish the power of the image, as it turns to the familiar historical or cultural context to fill any gaps left by the artist’s erasures. However, the gesture also invites viewers to think about how these erasures might destabilize the reliability of public memories, highlighting the faulty process of collective remembering and what it tends to overlook.

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Kota Ezawa Paint, Unpaint

Kota Ezawa

Paint, Unpaint