Items you might find on a shelf in the garage or packed away in the
basement—like wrenches, your old MP3 player, key fobs, or spare light
bulbs—become stars in their own right in Alain Biet’s mesmerizing animation. “Grands Canons,”
which translates from French to “Big Guns,” opens with a close-up of
the artist drafting a realistic, green pencil in watercolor. Once the
rendering is complete, we meet another pencil, and another, as a “visual
symphony” of thousands of precise drawings unfolds.
Biet’s intricately detailed illustrations highlight everyday objects
we might find in a junk drawer, a closet, or even destined for the
trash, emphasizing a variety of styles and how items have evolved over
time. His survey of technology and tools stokes a tinge of nostalgia,
too. Remember that old Discman, SLR camera, or Nokia brick? The gang’s
all here in a dizzyingly choreographed sequence, accompanied by an
original score that responds to the rhythms and movements of the
drawings as they skitter and whirl across the surface.
Find more of the artist’s work his website and Instagram.