The surreal destructiveness and magic of Japanese animator, Massaki Yuasa
When one looks at a painting created by Salvador Dali, it often tends to leave behind a sense of distortion, but not in a bad way. Dali's surrealism takes one back to the unconscious corner of the mind which according to Freud gives birth to our intimate patterns of dreaming. While some might say that Dali's work is unreal and wild, the artist has been the most influential figure in 20th C.E. art and one of the most celebrated public personalities. As he would himself say, "the difference between me and the surrealists, is that I am a surrealist", Dali stood away from his contemporaries because of his use of extravagant colors to express the distortions of the mind.
A similar characteristic is very much prominent in the works of Japanese animator, Masaaki Yuasa. Although some might point out that Yuasa's animations are at odds with what is considered to be higher art today, he has always added a very unique perspective to animation in an industry which has been increasingly traditional in the way it functions. Among his chief influences which include the American cartoonist Tex Avery and artist Salvador Dali, Yuasa manages to take inspiration from everything around him. As he said, "I often derive inspiration even from really modest visuals; a commercial, a cut from a movie, a movement from an anime as well as nameless flowers and grasses blooming on the road, clouds, stars, and moons in the sky. I’m also inspired by what I’m currently interested in and feeling. My humble wish for creating anime is to have common images, conversations, and scenes sublimed into art works.”
