Date of Submission

Spring 2013

Academic Program

Studio Arts; Written Arts

Project Advisor 1

Joseph O'Neill

Project Advisor 2

Ken Buhler

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This piece is an amalgam of text and image. In total, it consists of a novella and three short animations, all of which deal with the same narrative and characters. The novella itself is relatively linear, though it plays with time—speeding up and slowing down, taking pauses, trying to intersperse a broader scope with intimate detail. The animations reflect this preoccupation with time, as images undergo metamorphoses and find rhythm in repetition of color or form or gesture. Text from the novella provides voiceover. The writing and the artwork are meant to interact and enrich each other, but each part also independently functions as its own, whole piece.

The narrative of the novella grew out of the seeds of ancient Gnostic texts, specifically the notion of the unification (or division) of body and soul. A soul lives inside of a body, but how and why? And what happens when two souls are pushed into one body? The animations are sort of stitched together to reflect this ambiguity—a soul is something nebulous, intangible. Souls are more about feeling and idea, and so the images are meant to reflect glimpses of something, sometimes clear, sometimes confused, often repeated or jumbled. The pencil drawings act as anchors, slowing down the movement and offering something familiar, understandable. They are interrupted or metamorphosed into color and light, paint and scratches on film, devolving into form and pattern and rhythm.

“The origin of the term the thunder, perfect mind is unknown. What is known is the feeling of the thunder, perfect mind. It rolls at the back of your tongue. It electrifies. It is thunder—loud, it is perfect, it is the ability to conceive and understand and misunderstand. It is where clarity becomes so sharp that everything blurs. It cannot be pinned down or defined, but it can be felt: if you pull a plug out from the wall by touching the metal prongs, and then immediately jump into a pool of ice, you will understand the thunder, perfect mind.”

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