Polygonn - The Bishops
Keep Drawing
Reflection 2/19/26
I chose to write initially about the Disclosure video, but after I started, I realized that although there isn’t a traditional narrative in this piece per se—this is a filmed performance by Disclosure and their featured guest Mary J. Blige performing “F For You” live on a sound stage—a lot of the choices in this week’s Viewing List have similar qualities. The Disclosure clip stands apart from a couple of the other non-narrative clips that caught my eye (“Polygonn,” and “Keep Drawing”) in that the music—that is, the actual sound created by the the band and Mary J.—became a living presence personified by the rotoscoped animations that were added to the footage of the performers.
Both “Keep Drawing” and “Polygonn” aren’t traditional narrative pieces either, but are able to tell their stories through a combination of words and music (“Polygonn”) and familiar drawn characters (“Keep Drawing.”) The visual elements allow “Polygonn” to be a more interesting piece than a simple pop/rock song. I know the addition of the rotoscoping technique made me think that maybe there was more to this song, and this band, than meets the eye, considering that the visuals were so simple and compelling. However, after listening to the song the first time, I realized I didn’t really remember much about it, other than it seemed like a fairly generic (though tastefully done) mid-tempo 90s/2000s indie rock songs, but I do recall the video and the look of the images. The drawn representations of motions made by the players reminded me of the cloud of dust that followed Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoons.
“Keep Drawing” came across like a love letter to the act of drawing itself, encompassing the joy of doing the work, that is experienced by all artists, and the universal struggle to keep doing it when things get difficult (i.e. the many pencils and ink pens tossed away in frustration). Overall, it came across as a reminder to artists why they keep working, which seemed at heart, simply for the love of the act itself.
All three pieces are very effective in communicating emotional resonance through visual poetry, without the necessity of a traditional narrative storyline.
