Titled after a haunting early Beach Boys track, The Lonely Sea is vestigial of a year defined by isolation. Conceptualised when largely immobilised by an arthritic flareup and completed while under five kilometres travel restrictions, a sense of entrapment bleeds onto the screen.
Devoid of interaction or connection, characters live out choreographed loops against an increasingly surreal world. Their fixed expressions betray only emotional catalepsy while the method of production- a mixture of hand drawn, claymation and digital animation- emphasises repetition and labour- thus reflecting their existence.
The Lonely Sea has been screened in the the RDS Visual Art Awards in the RHA, Dublin, where it was awarded the Taylor Art prize as well as a solo screening in Birr vintage and arts festival, Offaly- Wayward Festival, Aberdeen and International Cosmopolitan film festival, Tokyo, where it was a semi-finalist in the category of best student work.
The Lonely Sea project included a number of songs, both sketches and more polished pieces.
(Below) Inhabitants of the Lonely Sea.
