Friday 3 June 2011

Animator Of The Week: Adam Pesapane (a.k.a PES)

EatPES.com album covers. Copyright Adam Pesapane.
For some reason, this one particularly appealed to me ;)


Oh what joy Adam Pesapane's work is! Born 1974 in New Jersey, PES graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in English Literature before working as both an indie and a commercial practitioner on various animated shorts for Sneaux Shoes, Bacardi and Coinstar [1]. Conversely, PES doesn’t like being called an animator. “It’s very limiting,” he says [2]. “Animation is the final part of the process for me, just the means to execute the idea. It’s actually just a necessary evil.” [3] Despite this, PES's first animated short, 'Roof Sex' (2001) won the 'Best First Film' award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and his unique animations have been critically acclaimed the world over ever since.


A major influence on PES's work is the Czech animator and filmmaker, Jan Švankmajer. “I learned a lot by watching [Švankmajer’s] films... I liked what he was doing with objects, using them as ideas and textures.” [4] This fascination is apparent in shorts like 'Western Spaghetti' (2008) that not only uses food as its subject matter (a recurring theme in Švankmajer's work) but also explores how objects can be transformed via the use of realistic yet heightened sound - another staple of Švankmajer's surrealist filmscapes. Combine this with PES's gleeful and often childish sense of humour and you have pure animation gold!

I don't really know where to begin with recommendations for PES's work - watch them all! But if you want a quick introduction then I'd highly recommend 'Roof Sex' (1 min 10), 'Human Skateboard' (31 secs) and 'Prank Call' (18 secs). Trust me, you'll absolutely love 'em!

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