Mr. Nobody
Mr. Nobody is a cartoon character created by artist Tanya Read in 1998. He is a black and white anthropomorphic animal, resembling a cross between a panda, cat and whatever. He originated in a series of drawings and was developed into several super 8 animations, sculpture, and video projects. The inspiration for this character comes from the Depression era cartoons of Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, etc.) and George Harriman (Krazy Kat). Mr. Nobody represents an average ‘Joe’ of our times, somewhat perplexed by the state of affairs in the world today.
Tanya Read is a multi disciplinary artist based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1995 and since then has been active in the Toronto art community. She was a co-founder and exhibiting artist in the Impure collective, a group of artists who organized exhibitions in Toronto between 1994 and 1998. In 1999, she and Scott Carruthers opened ‘Fly Gallery’, a storefront window used as an alternative exhibition space for artists, which continues as an ongoing project. In 1998 Tanya created Mr. Nobody, a Chaplinesque cartoon figure featured in films, sculpture, drawing and video. She looks forward to working with Mr. Nobody for many years.