Author | Annie Malamet | Visual Arts Editor
Reel 2014 from Maya Erdelyi on Vimeo.
Maya Erdelyi’s work can best be described as a chaotic explosion of color and folkloric imagery. A native New Yorker with a diverse ethnic background (Hungarian and Columbian family members), Erdelyi incorporates every aspect of her cultural experiences and identities into the intricate animations she lovingly creates. Her award-winning work has been displayed as part of the “New Filmmaker Series” at the Anthology Film Archives, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, VICE, Fandor.com, the soon-to-be launched Children’s Documentary Network, and recently as part of the much talked about Whitney Houston Biennial. Her work has been well received allowing her to cross the boundary between visual art and music, creating a music video for TV on the Radio.
“I grew up in a house full of color and pattern and great respect for art,” says Erdelyi. Her work certainly reflects that; geometric shapes in a myriad collection of patterns and colors along different styles of animation mixed together populate this artist’s visual language. “I grew up riding the rainbow grafittied subways of NYC in the 80’s. I grew up speaking Spanish and English, traveling to South America and Europe often. I grew up with my Hungarian Grandmother, and our family stories of surviving the Holocaust. I also grew up with magical realist stories of my Colombian family. I let the world around me, memories and family stories come into the work I make.”
I see Erdelyi’s work as utilizing the wondrous and beautiful aspects of our world (such as color and nature) to discuss real human trauma and suffering. For example, her thesis film Pareidolia uses fantastical imagery to discuss her family’s history with violence. In her words, “the film attempts to connect my experiences witnessing public cremations in India to my Great Grandmother’s miraculous survival of a mass killing by Hungarian Nazis along the banks of the Danube in 1944.”
Part of Erdelyi’s aesthetic that she uses to discuss these histories and memories is that of old folklore and craft tropes. In a way, she follows the tradition of artists such as Kara Walker and Faith Ringgold, employing a craft-like style to examine the intersection of trauma and memories. Additionally, her work makes me think of another animator, Jodie Mack in her use of color, shapes, and patterns. Even video artist Mary Reid Kelley comes to mind in the way both her and Erdelyi in regards to the intersection of historical events and personal memory.
Last July, Erdelyi went to Denmark to study at the Hans Christian Anderson Museum and Archive and to begin working on a children’s book and animation. She will be continuing this work this summer along with other projects in the mix. She will also be working as a Visiting Artist next year at the Museum School in Boston. Of her interest in children’s art, she says “I’m inspired by the outrageous, the courageous, by all things hand-made with hard-work…Children’s art can be so direct, raw and usually incredibly personal and unique. I have taught and worked with many children, and I am inspired by their magical thinking and the systems they create when making art. I try to bring that sense of wonder and discovery in the work I create.” I would say the artist herself uses this naïve, wondrous, raw sensibility in her own animations, creating works that could easily be interpreted as the unconscious dream-thinking of a child.
