The theme of your work is deeply rooted in symbology, archetypes, psychology (mainly Jungian), mythology, alchemy, and spirituality. How do these elements come together in your animations, and what messages or narratives do you aim to communicate to your audience through them?
I believe in a certain universality of symbols, what Jung calls archetypes, so various objects, elements and beings have a similar meaning at any time or place in the world, due to factors related to the nature of our body and mind. The human being of any time has similar physiological and existential needs, as well as emotions, feelings, desires, dreams, etc., and therefore there is a certain universal unconscious recognition, to a certain extent.
When I make my animations with their symbologies, I don’t intend to pass on an exact or specific message, but rather a collection of various elements that complement each other, evoking certain subjects in the viewer’s mind. I approach subjects that mark me and I think it is relevant to propagate them. Although I make a lot of references to various themes and one of the goals is for people to recognize them, I think my images work well without any prior knowledge, as the objects and elements work by themselves, causing some impact and subjective and personal meaning (betting on the archetypal and universal capacity, of course).
You mention conducting an iconographic study for each of your works. Can you provide an insight into your research process and how this study influences your animations’ symbolism and visual language?
One of the things that most impressed me at the arts faculty was learning to recognize the iconography of the arts, discovering that there was a true symbolic vocabulary and that this was propagated and adapted over the centuries and cultures. So I really like looking at art from various periods, comparing them side by side. I also like to read about the topics I am interested in, descriptions of mythological beings, for example, as they have already been represented, analyze various versions of various artists and times to understand how that representation works symbolically and then use it in my works, associating it with other symbols that in my view are from the same meaningful universe. In this way, there is a catalyst which conveys more assertively what I want to express.
Ancient art from various parts of the world, including Egyptian, Mesopotamian, medieval illuminations, alchemical emblems, and more, serve as an inspiration for your work. How do you blend these diverse influences into a cohesive artistic style, and what aspects of these ancient art forms do you find most intriguing and compelling?
As I said before, I believe that there is an intimate relationship between the symbologies of various cultures, whether this relationship is direct through symbols that have passed and were adapted by various cultures, and also indirectly through the archetypal and universal question (the sun, for example, is a universal symbol related to life and divinity, since its importance for all living beings was unquestionable to any people at any time).
What fascinates me the most about these arts from different peoples and cultures from different times is the ability and simplicity to represent and create symbols. They often weren’t concerned with being faithful to reality, but representing something, like a man fighting a dragon, the phases of the moon, animals, objects. At this point, I believe in universality, because children from anywhere in the world are capable of representing actions and expressing feelings through drawings focused on representations and symbologies, and not on the fidelity of reality. Human design is a universal ability to communicate with any other human from any period, and often the representations of these ancient peoples, especially those that are recurrent, address elementary themes of human existence, not only in everyday aspects but also in mythological, philosophical and spiritual aspects.
About Marcelo’s work
My work consists mainly of looping 3D animations, made using Cinema 4D and Corona Renderer.
I can define two main characteristics of my work: the theme, always very important, based on studies and notes that I have done over the years, with an emphasis on symbology, archetypes, psychology (mainly Jungian), mythology, alchemy and spirituality. For every work, there is an iconographic study. The second characteristic of my work is the vibrant colors in movement, based on studies of color theory and intuition, always looking for radiant, iridescent effects. I do my work in a very free way, I really like to see ancient art from various parts of the world, such as Egyptian, Mesopotamian, medieval illuminations and alchemical emblems, folk art, pre-Columbian, rock art and especially children’s drawings and paintings.
I am more interested in symbology and sincere representations than fidelity to reality. I do my work always motivated by fun, I feel like an adult who plays and I usually say that my motto is to try to express the desires of my inner child.
