Bethany Riordan-Butterworth, Storage Compartments

carey anne — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:53:06 +0000

Nick Blatchford Files — 001

This is the first in a series of features celebrating people in our community. It was inspired by my granddad (Nick Blatchford), a journalist who loved stories about people and their everyday lives. I’m excited to start the series off with Bethany Riordan-Butterworth and her recent project: Storage Compartments, an animated short that celebrates small things that lift us out of difficult times (the sparkling flags at a car dealership, a breath of fresh air, a special cat, cakes!).

The project came to be through the Centre for Art Tapes’ Media Arts Scholarship program (www.centreforarttapes.ca). Other scholars working alongside Bethany included: MJ Sakurai, Leslie Menagh, Kate McKenna, Bonita Hatcher, Leah Girado, François Gaudet, Suzi Cameron, and Jacinte Armstrong.

I tracked Bethany down for an interview after Storage Compartments had its debut at CFAT’s 20th Anniversary Media Arts Scholarship screening earlier this year:

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c: What inspired Storgage Compartments? How does it relate to your earlier work? (Can you remind me of the name of your book for the Eyelevel Gallery’s “If It Ain't Funny, It Ain’t Art” show?)

b: The animation was created through the New Media Scholarship Program at the Centre For Art Tapes. The idea for Storage Compartments comes from a series of daily drawings called Bends and Stretches that I created for a show at the eyelevel last spring. In both pieces I celebrate the mundane, the everyday, giving myself and others hope. The work is about realizing we're not alone and keeping our collective chins up, like "okay this is hard, to be alive, and it is scary, and no one is gonna do it for you so do your best and even though it may not seem like it's your best do it anyway. don't think too much, just do, do and do". Life was an inspiration for the animation. Documenting my reality in an imagined way.

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Carey Anne Jernigan

Bethany Riordan-Butterworth, Storage Compartments