An absurdist view of playing tennis against a ball machine — endlessly.

The animation refers to The Myth of Sisyphus in the endless of repetition of pushing a boulder up a mountain (the animation is designed to loop indefinitely).

I referenced a scene from the film Less Than Zero which stuck in my mind, when one of the character’s rich parents is idly playing tennis when something far more important was demanding his time.

The sound is from a recording I made of frogs chirping in a pond (heavily edited). This was the first film I animated at twenty-four frames a second (animator’s often use 12, shot 'on doubles’ to save time).

The white background recreates the concept of the void used in post-modernist theatre pieces. I was especially thinking about Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot while making this.

If you view the video on the Vimeo website, you can set the video to loop and experience the work as intended.

The Austhetic curated program screened a large number of local animated works during it’s time.

This particular screening program was supported by The City of Melbourne through the Arts Grant Program.