‘Opera’ is a visually stunning treat to the eyes. Through its characters, you will find various human emotions like hope, happiness, sadness, fear and terror beautifully portrayed. Topics of racism, terrorism, war, natural disasters, and general chaos that permeate different classes and sections of society are conveyed through a huge CG pyramid.

‘Opera’ is made by Erick Oh. Erick felt there was a lot of chaos in the world, and ‘Opera’ was his way to tell this story. We caught up with Erick for an exclusive interview.

Erick affirms that while ‘Opera’ is not based on his personal journey, it is certainly his way of documenting what he sees and hears around him. “Every incident that happened, not only here in America and in Korea, but everywhere else as well, natural disasters, political conflicts, all the social issues we had, like racism, sexism, they were my inspiration, because at the end of the day, that just really makes me sadly sceptical towards ourselves,” he says, going on to ask, “Are we actually evolving? Are we actually making our days better than yesterday? Are we actually marching forward? Or are we all stuck in this vicious cycle of humanity?”

Erick managed to stitch together a team of thirty-two extremely talented artists working weekends on voluntary basis. The project took four years to create. We asked him how he kept the team focused on one goal over this period of time. Erick says, “We had a team of artists who were working out of love and passion, right? But, it also meant that when something more important happened, this could, kind of wait, you know. Even I had a lot of priorities I had to focus on, and there were moments that I actually wanted to give up. Who cares, you know, if I stopped working. No one was waiting for this. No one was going to lose any money. But then, something happened again in the world. And then it was like, ‘Oh my God! I have to get back. This has to see the light of day.’ That motivated all of us to get cracking again. I am really thankful that none of them, nobody, gave up on this.”

‘Opera’ is highly provocative. It could be described as a living piece of art that questions society and human behaviour. Each section and individual character’s activities are intrinsically connected so the viewer can eventually enjoy the entire pyramid no matter which character they set their eyes on first.

It also means that to fully comprehend the whole idea, one needs to see ‘Opera’ multiple times, focusing on different parts of it each time. Choreographing all of this surely was a challenge, we wondered. Says Erick, “Think about it as a clock. It is a combination of all these things that are moving. With one thing missing, it is not going to move, right? So, it was like putting millions of puzzle pieces together. Yes, planning took some time. I did a lot of writing, made lot of thumbnails and drawings, and then said OK, these are a bunch of ideas I’ll have to actually put down. And then, what I came up with was a triangular format. I thought that was the most iconic, representative image that symbolises who we are. Then it was like, in this triangular format, how can I tell these many stories in one rhythm, you know, as you said? I had to put it together like a puzzle. This goes over here, and then it affects this section over here, and then this has to come over here. So, it was challenging, but it was a very satisfying experience to make it as a perfect clock.”

‘Opera’ will generate discussion on many topics. We asked Erick if there are any specific topics he would like to see it generate discussions on. His reply was, “First of all, natural disasters. Not sure if you noticed a huge fish, hanging down over there, and then there are God-like figures in the two corners, right? I don’t think of them as God, but more like Mother Nature. They do the healing process. At the end of the day, we are only human kind of message, you know. The other thing is, people fighting and killing each other in the name of different ideologies. There is a section where people are getting killed because they have different colours in their heads, or kids are getting coloured white because they have different thoughts. Those are two things that’s really breaking my heart. So, when people see this piece, at least, I love people to actually find those.”

So, what’s next for Erick, we ask. “My philosophy has always been, I want to be a story teller. And not only through animation films, it can be VR, a picture book, comics, a painting, an expression. ‘Opera’ is a really good example of my will to break those barriers. Is it animation, is it film, is it exhibition, is it painting? Don’t try to categorise it. My next project is actually VR. It’s called Namoo. It premiered at Sundance this year. And, I am currently working on a new Netflix original series. A very narrative film. I’ll keep pushing myself to be a multimedia artist, hopefully.”