Jiří Havlíček: Your latest animation and the current exhibition is called Cartoon. How would you define the word cartoon?
Martina Holá: How would I define Cartoon?
JH: I wonder why you decided for the name Cartoon? We can come to the definition later.
MH: I consider it to be a broad area. I realized that I usually created some system or systems during my work. Cartoon is a generally specific way of imagery with the help of animation, created from individual picture frames per second. It is an exactly defined format in which a system can be created. I have been watching old Disney black and white movies a lot recently and the individual motives repeat a lot there. There are gestures used many times in different scenes. For example a movement of a hand can be repeated in different situations. Still the same gesture but in a different setting. As for the animation technology I am a total amateur and I create simple models and systems which I work with afterwards.
JH: I think it was Disney who introduced a serial production into animated movies to increase the work effectivity…
MH: I am obsessed by the work effectivity a bit. It doesn’t mean I keep working from morning to evening but when I do something I want it to be effective. I don’t mind automatic work if it supplements the creative part. I mentioned Disney movies because I watched them a lot. I repeat myself quite often which is also connected with the repetition. When speaking, I often repeat one sentence again and again. I say something, but I need to change one word or place it somewhere else to make it more exact. So I say it again believing I am saying something completely new. I get stuck in the one sentence while others are already speaking about something completely else.
JH: Let’s go back to the ways of working. You said you liked an effective use of time. Is that the reason you tend to a minimalist form and a simple way of expression?
MH: Simplicity and effectiveness of a performance is certainly connected with my character, but the chosen aesthetics is rather intuitive.
JH: What does your virtual language come from?
MH: It is usually a certain cyclicity or repetition. Let me draw it to you. How the time passes on the surface and how it passes under the surface. In simple terms, there is a mountain, a movement upwards. Then there is a bridge falling down. Then there are geometric shapes consisting of dark and light lines. These segments overturn and refer by their trajectory to a wave movement. In the end there are just horizontals and verticals. They are basic principles, both physical and relational. This has also a lot to do with the fact that the animation is black and white. I can’t imagine it in colour at all. The shape simplicity, black and white, repetitive movements and clear composition suit me perfect.
JH: Is Cartoon about growth, collapse and duration in time?
MH: This could go for most of my work. All my pieces deal with duration in time, kind of a sinusoid or a wave. Things are growing and you try to slow them down. When they reach their top, you get over it and go down again.
