Cockburn Street Cinema 2010

Slide show: 

Launching Friday 17 December 6pm - 9pm 

Screening daily 4pm - 9pm 18 - 24 and 26 - 30 December 2010 FREE

Robert Breer       A Man And His Dog Out For Air   1958   1'56

David Shrigley    Conveyer Belt                            2008   3'07

Curated by Debi Banerjee and Kim Knowles 

Every year Stills lights up the dark winter evenings by projecting short films into our gallery window. This time Cockburn Street Cinema will screen two playful animations which bring the humble black line to life; A Man And His Dog Out For Air by American, experimental artist and animator, Robert Breer and Conveyer Belt by David Shrigley, the Glasgow-based artist whose work encompasses drawing, sculpture, photography, animation and music.

These two films, made fifty years apart, bring together complementary historical and contemporary perspectives on animated drawing. Their use of the black line against the white ground, alongside the rhythm and humour makes them a fascinating double act.

Breer started his career as a painter and began to experiment with animation in the late 1940s. In A Man And His Dog Out For Air Breer adopts a deceptively simple technique, evocative of the artist Paul Klee's approach to drawing. The result is an animated sequence of abstract line drawings which continually disperse and reform.

Also screening is David Shrigley's Conveyer Belt; a series of random and increasingly obscure objects appear and disappear across the frame in a curiously deadpan manner. Shrigley is best known for his humorous drawings and sharp wit.

Image A Man And His Dog Out for Air, Robert Breer (courtesy of LUX, London) and Coveyer Belt, David Shrigley (courtesy of the artist)