With Daylight Savings now ended and the nights longer, it’s a perfect time to celebrate the final work of the Spotlight 3.0 series — Hambone’s tattoo-inspired, rotating menagerie of urban animals.
On an infinite loop, a panther, a tiger and a gorilla slowly emerge and disappear from the darkness. Each creature, combatively roaring and growling, is usurped by the next, an ongoing cycle of supremacy playing out in the urban jungle.
Despite the final product’s projected status, each of the three animals were originally hand-painted on shaped wood panels in Hambone’s signature
traditional tattoo flash style, giving them a tactile basis. The three separate pieces revel in the Hambone’s hand-drawn lines, perfect imperfections and careful execution, finished with a glossy sheen.
Photographed and animated by digital creative, and repeat Spotlight contributor, Nicholas Keyse of Immersive Reality, the artworks are given new life through their subtle movement and oversized presence projected onto the exterior of Te Pae – Christchurch Convention Centre.
Keyse’s looping animation of Hambone’s characters amplifies their graphic ferocity into an immersive confrontation, their wide-open mouths both swooping over the viewer and providing the portal for the next creature’s emergence. Through shifts in scale and those all-consuming jaws, the viewer is pulled into the cycle, devoured, released, and drawn back in again. The looping intensity becoming hypnotic through constant repetition, reinforced by the unrelenting gaze of Hambone’s menagerie.
Hambone is an Ōtautahi Christchurch artist whose distinctive style is inspired by traditional tattoo imagery and lowbrow culture. See more of Hambone’s work by following @hambone.industries.
Pushing the limits of graphics technology while incorporating traditional techniques, Nicholas Keyse founded Immersive Reality Ltd after working extensively in the print and digital design industry. See more of Nick’s work at @immersiverealityltd.
Watch This Space proudly presents Spotlight – Urban Art Projections! Illuminating the city after dark with digital artworks created by a rotating roster of local creatives, Spotlight is a platform for collaboration, exploration and unique storytelling – taking street art to new places! Spotlight is made possible through the support of the Christchurch City Council’s Place Partnership Fund.
Stay tuned for the next iteration of Spotlight!
