LAWS OF MOTION IN A CARTOON LANDSCAPE | ANDY HOLDEN

Andy Holden (Bedfordshire, 1982) is a multifaceted and multimedia artist whose practice spans installation, video, digital art, and performance.
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape is a 2016 project that took over five years to reach its final form: a two-channel animated video film with a total runtime of about an hour.
The aim of this project is to articulate and support ten theses on the ‘physics of cartoons,’ asserting that there are ten laws of motion applicable to the visual and narrative environment of animated cartoons.
Holden takes on the role of the narrator in the artwork: in the style of a scientific dissemination format, the artist has included an avatar resembling himself—voiced by Holden—that systematically explains each of these laws in detail.

For most of the film, Holden’s avatar occupies the left video channel, using the right channel as a functional screen for his presentation. On this screen, words, scenes, and illustrative images are projected. The narrative thread of the artwork begins with the history of animation and touches on themes such as philosophy, theories of comedy, and concepts of physics, while also incorporating technical and scientific terminology.
To support each of the laws he presents, Holden provides various clips from cartoons, primarily—but not exclusively—from the world of the Looney Tunes.
And so, while his avatar counterpart explains to us that “Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation,” on the other screen we see a scene of Sylvester the Cat walking in midair in a state of half-sleep, only to plummet disastrously to the ground the moment he fully wakes up.
Or again, the countless chase scenes between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner in the deserts of the United States are presented here as irrefutable proof that “Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot.”
The exciting chases of various characters give Holden the inspiration to define another law, as famous as emblematic of cartoons: “Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter.”

The combination of the artist’s serious academic approach to narration and the lighthearted subject matter results in something both brilliant and genuine. By addressing this topic as if he were explaining a complex physical theory and doing so in a straightforward yet far from simplistic manner, Holden ultimately reveals a striking insight: “Imagination is the mother of our reality.”

Andy Holden
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, 2016, film still
57 minutes, two-channel colour video installation, synchronised, with sound
© Andy Holden, Courtesy Andy Holden

Andy Holden, Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape, 2016.
Installation view, Perimeter London, 2024. Photo by Stephen James. Courtesy Andy Holden.

27/11/24