Fainting

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Francoise Gamma

2023

NFT/Digital

Description

Both cartoonish and off-putting, Fainting is an artwork that revels in its own ridiculousness. Francoise Gamma has been making GIF art since the early 2000s, combining his interests in anatomical drawing and obsolete software in lo-fi animations. Here, he channels the internet’s own self-aware, half-humorous sensibility.

Fainting’s main tension lies in the contrast between its old-school computer aesthetic and its complex animation. Four blocky, line-drawn figures stand in a void, their outlines flickering, before they raise one hand to the sky and dramatically swoon to the ground. The movements are weirdly realistic, made extra bizarre by the figures’ simple composition. They bend, twist, and fall with lifelike specificity, some to their knees, others like timber.

Despite their glitchy inhumanity, these balletic, exacting movements are recognizable, even relatable. It is impressive that Gamma draws so much humanity from only lines and negative space.