Top 5 Cyriak Animations
As this is my first entry, and I want to really give Squarespace a chance, (although the interface is admittedly completely unfamiliar to me,) I thought I’d write about something I know very well.
I have been following Cyriak for well over a year, and I continue to be utterly amazed by his animation technique, which mostly involves bending and distorting photos and footage to create wildly bizarre scenes and imagery.
Here are some animations of his that I count among my top five.
5.) Chimpnology: One thing I’ve noticed is that Cyriak sometimes makes his animations using vintage film footage. This is one such animation. Though I don’t consider this to be the very best of his animations within that category, I still found it highly entertaining. Although it starts simple, with a cute dancing monkey on the first 20 seconds, it continually builds up as it progresses, eventually leading to some very trippy sequences where the monkey turns into a classic Cyriak monster. (Bent and distorted limbs, wandering eyes, multiplied body parts. Poor little monkey…) The big machine and the rows of chimps typing on typewriters are a couple more highlights.
This animation was based directly off of a 1963 film called BflOggGX = STwWcfl x 2s4. (Not an instance of Cyriak’s offbeat sense of humor, I can assure you. It really is called that!)
4.) RIP: This one is constructed almost entirely out of photographs of skeleton bones. (Probably the same skeleton multiplied as many times as he needed to use it.) The most entertaining thing about RIP is how intricately he arranges the bones so that they form rich and complex scenes.
I also appreciated the narrative, which seems to be a commentary on how most of us in society live our lives. We go to jobs we hate, we have a little fun when we get off work (if we’re even lucky enough to enjoy that luxury,) and then we do it all over again. Before too long, the process has us dead inside, even if only little by little…
3.) Something: This is another instance where Cyriak distorts and bends live action footage, which is incredibly difficult to do. It’s especially gratifying to watch faces bend and twist themselves into weird and surreal abominations, crawling out of shirt collars in a tentacular fashion.
It gets really intense at about the 45 second mark, where the footage (which is old black and white footage, presumably from the 50s,) melts away, and we are left with a nightmarish hellscape dominated by these writhing tentacles made of human eyes and mouths. The animation also changes at this point from black and white to a burning red palette. We have truly opened the portal to Hell at this point.
Then, at about 1:12, it goes back to the 50s (almost.) The footage still burns red, and the people’s faces are still likewise distorted, but we are out of the aforementioned hellscape.
I think I might have to say my prayers tonight….
2.) Breakfast: “There are some good common sense rules, you know! You must look where you’re going. And it’s no good thinking you can eat your breakfast out there because you’ll soon find yourself in trouble.”
No sooner does eccentric British actor Richard Massingham utter these wise words than we are thrust into a chaotic but mesmerizing trip. Cars bend, stretch, flip, roll, and dance right alongside Massingham, who seems to be enjoying Cyriak’s borderline sadistic bending, twisting, and outright manipulation. The highlight of this film by far is at about the 1:39 mark when piles of cars and breakfast trays continue to build up and multiply until we see an enormous abomination bearing Massingham’s grinning visage.
Definitely a fun romp, but, as the numbering implies, it gets better!
1.) Malfunction: An innocent housewife from a 1962 film is plunged into the depths of Cyriak’s twisted imagination as an alien creature constructed of his face and fingers crawls out of a kitchen sink, walks out of the house, and terrorizes the rest of the town as people and objects progressively bend, twist and warp in true Cyriak form. Eventually, it all gets so badly distorted that the surrealism can hurt your eyes a little.
I consider this one his very best because it is constructed from 100% vintage film footage (not counting the monster, which he made from footage of his own face and fingers, as previously mentioned.) No photographs, and no static elements. He probably had to do a hell of a lot of masking for this one, and it must have been incredibly time consuming. Props to him for a job well done!