Gabrielle Dunn

Headshot of Gabrielle Dunn

CYCLES

Thesis Statement

CYCLES is an animated three-part narrative that follows the main

character, an alien named Amon, as they descend into disconsolation as a response to perceived negative interactions with others. Each of the three sections contains its own atmosphere based on interactions that Amon has with the people they encounter. Cycle 1 is a placid, harmonious day for Amon. Cycle 2 is an unpleasant day full of distressing run-ins. Cycle 3, due to this shift in Cycle 2, finds Amon trapped deep within a warped view of the world and themselves. Even an ordinary life can be affected and skewed by the biases and prejudices of others.

My lived experiences and beliefs are intertwined, informing my desire to create art that delivers a purposeful message. Using a combination of painting and digital animation processes, I abstract the central figure of the work as a means of exploring social alienation, isolation, and the perception of the self in relation to others. I illustrate the experience of feeling othered and how that feeling affects perception and daily functioning. Breaking down these experiences into smaller sequential narrative parts enables a wider audience to understand how it feels to be struggle with mental health and feel judged and ostracized. Seeking to create an empathetic response in viewers for individuals that exist outside of the expectations of culture and society, I utilize simplification of form and concept to facilitate compassionate immersion.

An alien sits in a coffee shop with a notebook in front of him, sipping coffee, while a barista and customer have a friendly chat in the background. The overall vide of the still image is bright, saturated with color, and calm. An alien hugs himself in distress ater an unpleasant encounter with someone on the street. It is dark and overcast. The style of the still image is desaturated, dark, and gesturally drawn with expressive mark-making. An alien sits, hunched over, on the corner of his bed in a very messy room. Clothes and trash are strewn all over the floor and bed. posters droop from the wall. An eerie hand grips teh side of the wall from the only window in the room. The still image is drawn very scratchily, with a haze of static over the whole thing. The still image is in black and white.