Project Statement
Propagan-dumb is a collection of three satirical 1 - 2 minute animated shorts, each with their own art style and period-appropriate aesthetic. The first short acts as a parody of American war cartoons produced during the Second World War. In it, the narrator guides a soldier to murder a defenseless fish from outer space for crimes he more than likely did not commit, all in the name of protecting American suburbia from “foreign invaders.” The second short takes on the aesthetic of a He-Man commercial, in which Hero, our protagonist, is magically disfigured by the evil Monstro in a wanton act of violence. As it turns out, the only way to help Hero is to “buy the entire set [...], available at a Toy Palacetm near you!” The third, and final, short takes a first person perspective of someone watching a computer screen (specifically Youtube). After clicking onto a relatively harmless, educational video on climate change, more outlandish and reactionary videos begin to be recommended to the viewer on the right hand of the screen, and as the viewer’s mouse cursor attempts to click the back arrow, a glitch occurs. This glitch continues to feed the viewer more and more reactionary content, disabling pausing and flickering their screen, eventually revealing these demonic, melted commentators who simply repeat the phrase “division is what unites us.” The short ends on a Dennis-Prager-esque figure reaching out from the void towards the viewer as a collection of motion graphics circles his neck.
The ensemble of all three shorts showcases an evolution of technology within the medium of animation across nearly a century in contrast to an ideologically stagnant throughline of consumerist and white supremacist dogma.
Artist Statement
Malachi Lee is an artist and animator whose work actively interweaves both tragedy and comedy when dissecting subjects like success, mental health, and self-identity. Based in Portland, Oregon, he has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, where he majored in Animation.
He believes that animation is an incredible tool for art creation, as it takes the visual strengths of a medium like illustration and beautifully intertwines them with the storytelling ability of something like live-action film, without ever being restricted to a single image or even the laws of physics.
One of his most recent projects, Happy (2021), is an animated short film which externalizes the very internal experience of anxiety-induced panic attacks. Exploring themes of mental health, empathy, and self-doubt, Happy combines both 2D and 3D digital animation methods to not only confront the ignorance, and even vitriol, had by people who are personally unfamiliar with anxiety disorders, but to also resonate with those who have experienced them, so that they can know they are not alone in this struggle.