Pathetic Bubble iii / Bats in the cave by Antwan Horfee & Russell Maurice
Pathetic Bubble iii exhibited at Calm & Punk Gallery in Tokyo, is the third instalment of joint exhibitions that Antwan Horfee and Russell Maurice have worked on together. Part one being toured in Australia (Melbourne than Sydney) 2014, the second in Horfee’s hometown Paris 2017. Both Artists are key components and chief catalysts in the new movement of Comic Abstraction.
In an underground cabin of furore and fantasy, meet the idiosyncratic worlds of Antwan Horfee and Russell Maurice. Hurtling from the train tracks and boulevards of Paris, Horfée’s metropolis of anthropomorphic creatures and psychiatric machines come face to face with Maurice’s apocalyptic island littered with a melted Oz wizard and bruise-faced moon.
For both artists, though allied to different practices, are indebted to the cartoon and such maestro animators as Winsor McCay and Paul Grimault. Exposed together here, the boiling down of animation is unveiled in their work. Using cels (transparent sheets) originally employed to split up the production process of hand-drawn animation, Maurice and Horfee revive a historical technique of cartoon creation to seamlessly layer up their compositions. For Maurice, this results in uncanny scenes of abandoned castles interrupted by ambling hobo characters, and obscure scenarios of mystical objects.
Horfee’s never before seen featured sardonic short animation is a chaotic fantasy landscape with a parade of creatures in all shapes and sizes walking and floating through their occupation of this surreal space, allowing the viewers curiosity to witness the internal myriad.
Maurice’s pastel colored post apocalyptic 2D paintings, collage and 3D works all hold the same mix of vintage animation references mixed with a psychedelic abstraction, bold and sometimes melancholic.