Icy Qiao

Icy Qiao (b.1997) is a London-based animation director, 2D & stop-motion animator, and illustration artist from China. She received her Bachelor's degree in Animation from the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts (2020), and is currently doing MA Narrative Animation in Royal College of Art.

Her themes are often drawn from personal experience, social psychology, and philosophy. Her works are not limited to a single medium and often include live-action, 2D animation, stop-motion animation, motion graphics, and installation. She sees her creation as a healing process; creating a conversation with the viewers through the dissection of memory and self.

As an Asian artist, Icy Qiao's work is influenced by her own experiences and the social psychology phenomena in East Asia, including the great mother family structure, which is the opposite of the paternal society, pathological symbiosis, and giant baby psychology. She reflects on these issues from her own point of view by dissecting herself and regards her creative process as a kind of psychoanalysis. She believes that art is the most direct and sincere way of expression, through which the viewer can communicate with the author spiritually.

She considers herself a storyteller and tries to explore the boundary between animation and narrative. Instead of limiting herself to the field of traditional animation, she often adds other media to her works, such as live-action and installation, and tries to break the logic of linear narrative in terms of narrative techniques. The core of her creation is the expression and transmission of emotions.

Synopsis

The grandma always protected the little girl from family drama, she was the ivory tower for the girl. But after she passed away, the ivory tower breaks, creating a gate of a fantasy world. In reality, the girl is forced to face the truth that the perfect family she used to think is full of fights. Every time when an argument happens, she will hide in the imaginary world. In there, she is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to go into the jungle. But when she returns to reality she sees the pain of living between her parents' two families. After the mother says she wishes the girl had never been born and stalked by the father, she goes into the jungle, lying in the lake, she finds peace.

In Collaboration with:

Jenny Shen

Composer &Sound designer

Kailin Zhang

Technical support

Joe Hirst

Sound mix

Ana Tavares, Nathan Ramos, Catarina Teixeira da Silva, Pinar Elif Zengin

Animation coloring

Medium:

Immersive experience

Size:

4'00"

WIP SHOW TEST

Description

This is my test for wip show, but due to space and equipment limitations I only projected two walls, my complete plan was to create an enclosed space with four walls, like a puppet theatre play, with the background remaining almost the same and the characters moving through the space and driving the story. In this test, I added an infrared sensor, and when you get close to the ivory tower in the corner, it starts to collapse.

My final outcome is an immersive experience.