Jamie Wolfe’s waxy characters star in an animated teaser for King Krule

Jamie Wolfe has directed an “animated response to a slice of a song” from King Krule AKA Archy Marshall. The track Vidual is from King Krule’s new album The OOZ and Jamie collaborated with the artist to create the extended teaser.

“To me, Vidual is a song about betrayal, resentment and the emotional tailspin that occurs when those emotions collide. It’s sung with this guttural intensity and disorientating pacing that I really connected with and wanted to mirror in my piece,” Jamie says. “I initially pitched the piece as ‘a taxi ride gone awry’ but I didn’t know what that meant until I started drawing. I had these specific images that I was fixated on – a taxi cab being sucked into a vortex, a big pointing hand wearing red latex gloves, a dude being spun by his long, dangly nose – so i first made those and went from there.”

Created in Jamie’s now signature style of wibbly, waxy characters, the linework in the animation was created using brush and sumi ink to create that stretchy movement, and then coloured digitally.

When we last shared Jamie’s work, her short film Roommates was more narrative-based and it’s something she’s tried to continue in her work since. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what it really means to create an abstract narrative,” she explains. “How much information do we need to have to understand a thought or feeling? How can I use the boundlessness of cartoon bodies to express those thoughts and feelings? I also wanted to be really intentional about pacing in this piece. The rhythm is built out of pairing aggressive, extreme movements with tense stillness.”