In the internet’s brief life story, the term ‘GIF’ is as quintessentially ‘1990s’ as The Spice Girls or New Labour.
Websites were once full of the juddering flashing pictures, whereas today, Graphic Interchange Format is usually only deployed as a kitsch joke on Twitter.
Well, one artist at least is refusing to surrender the GIFs to history or irony. Instead, he used it to create a series of slightly-unnerving handmade monsters.
Dain Fagerholm, a Seattle-based animations, describes his work as ‘stereographic drawings’.
As The HuffPost US explains: “They trick the eye by rapidly switching between two images that shift perspectives, creating a bizarre 3-D effect.”
Bizarre is one word for it. Disturbing is another. For us, the rapid movement of Fagerholm’s creatures give his work an uncomfortable, panicked sensation.
Or maybe we’re just being oversensitive? Take a look for yourself then let us know below…