Animation Stirs Imagination

GAMBIER, Ohio (October 13, 2009) Tranquil but disturbing animation and accompanying drawings make "I Choose Darkness" a compelling exhibition by Karen Yasinsky at the Olin Art Gallery in October.

Yasinsky will discuss her work on October 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Olin Auditorium and an opening reception in the gallery will follow.

The Robert Bresson film Au hasard Balthazar (1966), a spiritual perspective on a mistreated donkey and a shy farm girl, is a starting point for the stop-motion puppet animation "I Choose Darkness" and the drawing animations "Enough to drive you mad" and "Marie." A version of the nearly blind cartoon character Mr. Magoo appears in "Enough to drive you mad." The films are supported by related drawings in various media.

Creating the films is painstaking but "pure pleasure," Yasinsky said. "I don't set out to make it disturbing. I want to set up a situation where the viewer has to sort out the meaning. So, it isn't about entertainment. It's about setting up questions ... to have people stop and think about the darker impulses of being human."

The suffering of characters may be seen as one path to redemption, she said, but other paths are found "through art and beauty."

Installations and drawings by the Baltimore-based artist have been featured in exhibitions around the world, including at Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; P.S. 1 Contemporary Art, New York; University of California at Los Angeles Hammer Museum; and the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University in Columbus.

The exhibition is free and the public is encouraged to visit. The Olin Art Gallery is in the lower level of the Olin Library and is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Contact gallery Director Dan Younger for more information at youngerd@kenyon.edu and 740-427-5346.