Amy Sillman

The animation After Metamorphoses was inspired by Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses, which begins with the line “I sing from a body changed.” Within its five-minute duration, the work features numerous transformations from human to animal to object and back. The process is accompanied by a specially created soundtrack that underscores the transformations in a humorous manner. In contrast to the transformations in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the characters here merge quickly and at times without any narrative.

The transformations of the figures are driven by forms and areas that are constantly changing and dissolving. Abstract gouache and ink drawings were combined with figures sketched on an iPad to form a sequence, enabling the artist to aptly describe her video animations as animated drawings.

The artist says: “... studying the tradition of nonlinear narrative in experimental film and video, which was edited in part for its rhythm, its cuts, its sense of disruption, not its continuity. So, I’m both interested in the sense of continuity and the sense of cutting that makes up all these forms. I work like an editor.”