London based Sophie Koko Gate works in the ‘untouched territory’ that lies between experimental and mainstream animation. She sees her practice as a parallel existence that runs alongside ours, creating strangely familiar characters that live on behind the scenes, ageing and changing design with the films telling stories, evoking a feeling or simply to escape. Her film Half Wet (2015) explores ideas around ageing – specifically the loss of water or evaporation of one’s self as we near death. Sophie adds, ‘I wish animation could give off scent. ‘Half Wet’ would be the smell of a hot country crossed with your ex-lovers deodorant’.
A later film, Slug Life (2018) centers around Tanya, a curious woman who after exhausting all options on the post-apocalyptic land she inhabits, has developed a taste for non-human lovers. Her bedroom experiments result in the creation of a beautiful giant slug but can such a perfect creature survive in this gnarly world full of freaks and beefs? In 2020 Sophie collaborated with Adult Swim to create a Rick and Morty Bumper short, Brunch, which sees the iconic duo unravel into insanity while “off duty” in a rehab-like resort, waiting for their fourth season to be released – ‘a relaxed mind is a dangerous thing for the unhinged, forever haunted by the memories of the last three seasons’.