myths | Onelargeprawn

The last time we featured South African photographer Pieter Hugo, he was hanging out with the Gadawan Kura or ‘hyena handlers’, a group of minstrels who wander the towns of Nigeria, entertaining people and selling traditional medicines. It seems he has returned to Nigeria to explore yet another facet – the phenomenon that is Nollywood.

The film industry in Nigeria has become the second largest in the world, ahead of Hollywood and behind Bollywood. Shot on location all over Nigeria, a staggering 200 videos are released onto the home video market every month!

In Hugo’s latest series, he explores the Nigerian tradition of story-telling by asking a team of actors and assistants to recreate Nollywood myths and symbols as if they were on movie sets.

His vision of the film industry’s interpretation of the world results in a gallery of hallucinatory and unsettling images.

The tableaux of the series depict situations clearly surreal but that could be real on a set; furthermore, they are rooted in the local symbolic imaginary. The boundaries between documentary and fiction become very fluid, and we are left wondering whether our perceptions of the real world are indeed real.

Here’s a small gallery.

See more of Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood. [some content NSFW – exposed boobies & penises]

[via Between 1 0and 5]

We’re on a bit of an arty vibe today and in his short film, Hemlock, self-taught animator Tyson Ibele from New Zealand tells the story of an ancient myth using a Steampunk aesthetic. This what Ibele has to say about how the story and title came about.

The story came from an idea I had a few years ago about a twist on the “King Midas” myth, where instead of a king touching something and turning it into gold, he touches it and it turns into clockwork. Then, I adapted that idea into the “Fountain of Youth” story, because I felt I could work a better over-arching narrative into it.

The film is named after a plant called hemlock that was used in poisons throughout history. It’s a fairly innocuous-looking member of the parsley family, in plant terms, but it is quite deadly. So, it’s a reference to the way the water from the well in the film seems desirable….but drinking it has terrible consequences.

Terrible consequences indeed. It’s a creepy tale and animated well. See it below or watch it in HD at Vimeo.

[via Haha.nu]