Ryan Lar-kin was once hailed as the Frank Zappa of animation, but today he is an alcoholic spending his days begging, his nights in a homeless shelter.
Chris Land-reth tells his story in the Oscar-winning animated short Ryan presented at the Brackendale Art Gallery next Friday (June 3) at 8 p.m.
Larkin showed a high aptitude for art from a young age, getting accepted at the esteemed Montreal School of Fine Arts when he was just 13. As an animator he was credited with inventing a new technique involving pressed charcoal, and created Walking (1969) which was nominated for an Oscar. Landreth first met Larkin five years ago and spent a week getting to know him, hearing about his life.
Larkin is described as a pioneer in Canadian animation, a gentleman panhandler, and an artist unable to create. In Ryan, the voices of Larkin's present life of homeless people, mission-house caretakers and waitresses speak through strange, twisted and disembodied 3-D generated characters.
"I wanted to show a metaphorical reality, the twisted nature of Ryan's psychological state as well as my own," said Landreth. "The opening sequence sets up how other people look in the rest of the film."
The evening's presentation also features Alter Egos, a documentary film juxtaposing Larkin and Landreth as, well, alter egos. With excerpts from both artists' Oscar-nominated works, Alter Egos delves deeper into the curious tale of Ryan's descent and explores the complex relationship that developed between the two men.
[email protected]
