Created by Melbourne artist and animator Isobel Knowles, I fell off my bike is a darkly hilarious and compelling collection of animated vignettes that capture moments of imminent injury. The six different sequences in the video are based on bike accidents that either Knowles herself has experienced, or that have been relayed to her:
“Whenever I fly over the handlebars there is a long moment between when I know I have lost control and when I actually hit the ground, where things slow down and there's time to think about what's going on. It's an exhilarating moment between being intact and lying in a heap of injured limbs and broken bicycle.” Artist Isobel Knowles
I fell off my bike is a vivid collection of hyper-coloured animation, hand-drawn and computer animated, made especially for the Big Screen at Federation Square. By using real cycling mishap stories, the work taps into Melbourne’s current craze for cycling, and the pain we have all inevitably felt when experiencing injury on the city streets.
Isobel Knowles' I fell off my bike is a painful expose on stacking your bike. It's almost unwatchable, yet strangely addictive. This is what Rachel Elliot-Jones at ThreeThousand.com.au said about it recently:
"If you consider yourself a true Melbourne denizen, then no doubt you are familiar with the humble pushbike. You guys have had some good times, some memorable times, but sometimes you've had your differences and you (the singular you) got thrown to the curb, literally. I Fell Off My Bike is a series of hand-drawn and computer-animated biking mishap stories, inspired by Isobel Knowles' own personal flight over the handlebars, and that universally relatable feeling of imminent injury. Those of you also familiar with Fed Square and the usually average stuff screening down there will be happy to learn that this is definitely not average, and you should probably work it into your October at least once."
About Isobel Knowles
Isobel's multidisciplinary practice encompasses animation, music video, installation, visual art, film soundtracks and music. She has screened, exhibited and performed nationally and internationally, most notably at the ICA, London; the Seoul New Media Biennale, Korea; and, in Melbourne, at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image; West Space; and BlackBox Theatre at The Arts Centre. www.isobelknowles.com
Isobel Knowles' I fell off my bike is on the Big Screen at Federation Square this Thursday, 1 October 2009 from 5:30 to 6:30pm. Then, again every Thursday through October.
Isobel Knowles' work featured in RealTime
Our October Next Wave Time Lapse artist Isobel Knowles has earned a great review of her screen art animation I fell off my bike, in RealTime:
"Isobel Knowles’ I fell off my bike is such a wonderfully cathartic work. You can sit back and enjoy the spectacle of a bunch of smugly complacent bike boys and girls hit the deck in a carnival of lovingly rendered accidents. I fell off my bike can be read as an allegory of ill will, a guiltless ‘schadenfreude’ directed at the lycra set."
Read the complete review HERE.
About Isobel Knowles
Isobel's multidisciplinary practice encompasses animation, music video, installation, visual art, film soundtrack and music. She has screened, exhibited and performed nationally and internationally, most notably at the ICA, London, the Seoul New Media Biennale, Korea, and in Melbourne at ACMI, Westspace, and Black Box Theatre.
IMAGE: Isobel Knowles, My Old Ways, 2006. Animation still.
