To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I first went to see Kelly Sears’s animations.

Her work revolves around taking images from different sources, stripping them of their original context and meaning, and then using art and animation to give them new meaning, new context, and new nuances.

Kelly used images not as two-dimensional objects, but as something much more than that. The conditions of the sources she used were sometimes clear and enhanced. For example, in one of the animations, she used some old photos which had spots, and proceeded to use those spots within the context of the animation, and even enhance them. As another example, the animations also gave the images a ‘mind’, so to say. By changing light, focusing on a portion of the image, or making transitions in and out, Kelly often tried to give insight as to people’s thoughts and mental states. In that sense, the images cease to be 2D by gaining an intellectual component, and also by gaining an additional interpretation, since facial expressions and the body itself start representing said mental state.

By providing new or modified meaning to images, Kelly was able to ask questions regarding meaning, intentionality, and interpretation of all types of media. Accordingly (and also according to herself), she often attempted to not be fully clear in her videos, so as to encourage the audience to also indulge in the questions she is trying to ask.

I really enjoyed watching Kelly’s work. It was a very thought-provoking experience, and a great one at that!