Kathleen Quillian

Oakland, California, USA

STATEMENT OF ARTIST PRACTICE

My short animations explore collective and individual ways humans engage with the unknown. I am fascinated by the invisible forces that shape our lives and how they compel us to act or react in different ways, from spiritual practices to advertising to the electromagnetic spectrum. I tend to be drawn to liminal spaces, historically, culturally, materially, where one thing ends as another begins. It is these murky spaces of unknowing that I examine using animation and its limitless, representational possibilities. Images are mined from the print and digital detritus of visual culture, scanned, manipulated, printed, cut out and assembled by hand into imaginary landscapes where disparate elements interact and come to life.

ARTIST BIO

Kathleen Quillian is an Oakland-based artist who works primarily with found imagery, collage and stop-motion animation. She has exhibited in venues and festivals internationally including International Film Festival Rotterdam, San Francisco International Film Festival, Antimatter Film Festival, Animasivo, REDCAT, the Exploratorium and Pacific Film Archive among others. She has served on the boards of directors of San Francisco Cinematheque and Artists’ Television Access and is currently co-director of Shapeshifters Cinema, an experimental microcinema in Oakland, CA.

CONTACT

kathleenquillian.com

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Examples of Collage in Motion

Stardust Serenade

Mid-century advertising comes to life in a surreal mash-up of interstellar dimensions.

Sound design by Gilbert Guerrero.

The Conjurer

Using remnants of ideas and images from previous animation projects, The Conjurer is a symbolic illustration of the act of animating. It shows how imagination, creativity and a little bit of magic can open portals to new dimensions.

Sound design by Gilbert Guerrero.

Confidence Game

Confidence Game sheds light onto the motivations, methods and impact of those who use persuasion and deception to bring about personal gain.

Sound design by Gilbert Guerrero.