Artist Bill Domonkos Remixes Archival Footage and Photos into Surreal Animations

by: Christopher Jobson

Working with photographs, film clips, and illustrations lost to time, San Francisco-based filmmaker and stereoscopist Bill Domonkos creates darkly humorous animated GIFs. The resurrected photos merged with modern animation are almost completely nonsensical in subject matter and yet perfect in their execution, the more random the better. From his artist statement:

I experiment by combining, altering, editing and reassembling using digital technology, special effects and animation to create a new kind of experience. I am interested in the poetics of time and space—to renew and transform materials, experiences and ideas. The extraordinary thing about cinema is its ability to suggest the ineffable—it is this elusive, dreamlike quality that informs my work.

These brief animations capture the filmmakers wit and aesthetic, but he uses many of the same techniques for much longer films, many of which have been shown in galleris and festivals around the world. You can explore more of Domonkos’ work on Tumblr and on Ello.