Liv Dugdale (She/her)
Over the past year I have been working on two films utilising hand drawn and mixed media animation. Drawing is central to my practice. I am interested in observing people and the relationships between them, focussing on small details rather than big stories. Through sustained looking and recording I can learn what it is that resonates with me, showing what is significant through selective inclusion of detail. Drawing the films frame by frame me to transform my drawings intuitively, resulting in an outcome with a tactile quality and hand-rendered feel to reflect the themes of my research.
My first film Pigeon Holding explores the relationship between people and birds through a combination of photographic collage and hand drawn animation. My research was grounded in the pigeon keepers in Glasgow’s Doocots, exploring the sense of community and connection that exists within this male-dominated hobby.
Oral history has made up the basis of my second film, Raceway 1975, which takes a more narrative approach in telling the story of my Grandfather who took part in Formula 3 racing in the 1970s. My dad tells the story of a race day and his memories of his own father. Combining hand drawn animation with photographs and ephemera I aim to capture a clear sense of time and place while also exploring the relationship between the two.
Pigeon Holding
Raceway 1975
Raceway 1975 tells the story of my Grandfather, Peter Dugdale, who took part in Formula 3 racing in Lancashire in the 1970s. The story is told through my dad’s eyes as he describes his memory of a race day when he was a child. The film comprises hand drawn sequences, stop motion, and family photographs. Hand-drawn animation allowed me to interpret my dad’s memories into images, incorporating details from his childhood that ground the story in a certain time and place.
Project Links
Pigeon Holding
This project began as research into the community of pigeon keepers in Glasgow. Dotted along the Clydebank cycle path are a series of strange looking huts painted black, blue and green. These windowless huts constructed of huge metal sheets and corrugated iron are filled with pigeons and the men who keep them. Each man has his own hut called a Dovecot/Doocot/Dookit in which he cares for his birds, and on top sits a small cage which is used to lure in and trap other people’s birds. Through researching this competitive subculture I became interested in the relationship between people and birds, exploring this visually through comparisons of gesture and movement. Creating small moving image tests with collage and drawing allowed me to communicate these similarities, with a hand-rendered feel that aims to reflect the tenderness that exists within this male-dominated hobby. These tests became the basis of my final film: an animation about the relationship between people and birds grounded in Glasgow’s Doocots.
