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KABOOM! Explosive Animation from American & Japan was a major exhibtion curated by Philip Brophy and commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney in 1994. At the invitation of directors Leon Paroissien and Bernice Murphy, Philip was approached to curate an exhibtion on American animation. This was expanded to include Japanese animation which at the time of the exhibition's development in late 1992 was going through a major and exciting explosion worldwide. The exhibtion covered 2 entire floors of the museum and ran for 3 months with an attendance of 79.000.

The approach of the exhibition was to draw 'postwar' connections between America and Japan and find deeper resonances in the post-atomic effects which have cojoined both countries' popular culture since. The curatorial concept was to define an 'explosive' aspect in animators' work, generating cultural perspectives that distinguished their modern/postmodern appeal from the classical tradition exemplified by the Disney studio's legacy.

The design of the exhibition was based on recreating in some measure the 'explosive' impact of the animations themselves. The exhibition was an audiovisual assault of the senses, designed to capture the vertignious feel of the animations as well as provide information about the animators, their craft, their ideas, and the overall cultural realm from which they grew. Apart from excerpts of numerous animations, the exhibition included specially conducted video interviews including Hayao Miyazaki, Otomo Katsuhiro, Buichi Terasawa, John Kricfalusi, Mike Judge & John Zorn. Original cels, sketches, paintings and backgrounds by these artists were also displayed.

Curator/book editor: Philip Brophy
Project Manager: Erica Drew
International Co-Ordinator: Rosemary Dean
Assistant International Co-Ordinator: Minoru Ideta
Camera Operator & Crew: Rosemary Dean (Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles), Minoru Ideta (Tokyo), Fusion (Melbourne)
Interpreters: Kiyoo Joo, Minoru Ideta
Studio Liasion: Junko Ita (A-Girl Productions)
Computer Graphics; Eric Gorton
Video Post-Production: Fusion
Video Subtitling: Chiaki Ajioka (SBS-TV)
Exhibition Video Design: Stephen Jones
Exhibition Audio Design: Kevin Davidson
Exhibition Music Design: Philip Brophy
Exhibition Design: Philip Brophy, Andi Mether
Props: MCA Crew; Funky 3-D Designs, FX Staging
Translations: Minoru Ideta, Keiko Yuasa, Tim Patterson

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