{"id":232062,"date":"2025-05-09T04:45:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T04:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/animation\/made-for-duty-overseas-by-katie-king\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T04:45:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T04:45:34","slug":"made-for-duty-overseas-by-katie-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=232062","title":{"rendered":"‘Made for Duty Overseas’ by Katie King"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Katie King<\/strong>\u2019s short animation film, ‘Made for Duty Overseas’, is a very original animation film, with striking tactility due to being made using fabric techniques. Based on a real-life encounter with a woman involved in political activism, whilst staying at a hotel in Sri Lanka, the film has a mysterious and quirky sensibility.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Zippy Frames asked Katie to tell us more about her practice:<\/p>\n

ZF: Can you tell us about your use of fabric and textile processes for animation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KK:<\/strong> I am drawn to fabric puppets that mimic what is, in real life, a hard object – such as making the moon from quilted textiles. I also love the way fabrics interact with light, like the glow of bounced light off silk. I began my artistic journey with textiles before moving into animation, so I feel at home working with fiber. Animation has birthed a new freedom in this relationship, as I can now play with form in 2.5D, using my multiplane – a structure built from layered glass.<\/p>\n

ZF: How do you feel these techniques affect how your work is received?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KK:<\/strong> The artist Kiki Smith said in an interview that when she works with material she lets it tell its story to her, and follows what it tells her. Fabric and textile processes are a loaded medium. The way people connect to them often comes with personal associations, be that nostalgia (through seeing women in their family as textile practitioners in some form), therapeutic, craft-based, ecological, political – and so much more. Often physical mediums are written into the story as an additional character.<\/p>\n

ZF: What specific challenges have you faced in animating with fabric? And what does the textile approach bring to the narrative in how it may be perceived?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KK:<\/strong> This past year I have been experimenting with organza for a new film I\u2019m developing (Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into The Future) and building up layers, which requires a lot of patience to keep the smaller layers in place. Where the velvet produces a very solid image with shadows and vivid color and texture, the organza tests I have been doing are much softer, and hint more at the interior emotions of the character I\u2019m making.<\/p>\n

ZF: Can you tell us about your exhibition \u2018Half Bambi, Half Cow\u2019 at Wilton Way Gallery, in London Fields? It sounds like an intriguing mix of fabric animation and projection.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KK: <\/strong>Half-Bambi, Half-Cow<\/em> [Katie\u2019s exhibition at Wilton Way Gallery, in London] has been an opportunity to further reflect<\/a> on the particular female character I write stories about. She\u2019s not fully a Femme Fatale, nor is she a New Woman. She\u2019s somewhere in that ironic gap in between. Each of the physical textile works in the show reflects on this persona, either with a direct reference to Made For Duty Overseas which is screening inside the gallery, or taking the story further; imagining what kind of objects you\u2019d find in her bed, asking where she comes from, and what stories does she tell us about womanhood? Animation is such a powerful medium to me because in five minutes or less a director can make a huge point under the guise of being very small. It\u2019s one bullet rather than a thousand knives.<\/p>\n


ZF: Can you tell us more about exploring feminine identity through your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KK:<\/strong> Saba Mahmood\u2019s Politics of Piety<\/em>, though an unlikely reference, had a big effect on my personal feminism: freedom doesn\u2019t necessarily mean resistance to norms. Agency can also come by leaning into norms and taking up space, which often defies easy characterization. This is what the woman who inspired my film was doing in real life.\u00a0 Ultimately, I\u2019m interested in experiences that are aesthetically pleasing but morally questionable alongside how the presence of femininity can lend itself to creating something softer. Smoking is a really obvious example of this existing in my work.<\/p>\n

My new project, which I\u2019m writing with Sorcha O\u2019Sullivan<\/strong> again, is riffing from gangster films in order to explore one of the most sacred of female experiences. My approach is to repackage something sensitive, working around the seriousness either by humor or using associations that carry the burden of what I want to say without getting me into too much trouble.<\/p>\n

Watch ‘Made for Duty Overseas’<\/em><\/h4>\n
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