Tala Madani’s earliest experiments with animation began not long after she introduced the Cake Men series. In these works, her paintings come to shuddering, exploding, dissolving life. The animations are largely rendered in paint and captured in a stop-motion process. As in the paintings, the characters enact absurdly repetitive and destructive behaviours; animating these actions allows the audience to follow the carnage through to its inevitable end. Similar to her other series, Madani’s animations reside in a cycle of absurd destruction, like machines programmed to loop eternally between self-immolation and resurrection.

Shit Mom Animation 1 (2021) is the first of its kind that features the enigmatic Shit Mom figure, set within the confines of a bourgeois Spanish-style house. As the Shit Mom passes through the interiors, she leaves parts of herself on the surfaces and furniture. Her journey becomes increasingly fraught as attempts at masturbation are frustrated by her semi-solid form, evoking Tala’s distinct peevish sense of humour. This style of animation, along with Tala’s use of archival images, marks a distinct shift in the artist’s practice.