David Crump is a painter turned animator, exploring the potential of stop motion, and plasticine to emulate visceral feelings of painting.
Using plasticine like paint, mixing up colours and making considered applications of plasticine to try and capture a persons inner feelings very much how an artist might approach a portrait.
His work often includes a boil, which means each frame a character is rubbed down, letting the viewer understand his marks are all over this work, which compliments the personal stories he is trying to tell. The boil is performative but also the life force of his figures, letting the viewer understand the characters are alive in complex ways beyond the movement, or lack of movement that they may or may not make.
Much like painting its the accidents and uncontrollable elements that often lead the direction of the work, animating instinctively and letting the plasticine direct David where to go next. Swipes and contorted figures are regular themes through out his work, leaning into almost sculptural territories. The work explores themes of vulnerability, shame, acceptance, and sexuality, and are about the artist's own personal experiences growing up gay.
