Gain of Function: New Mutations/Old Traditions/Collective Effervescence is a project led by Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA-based artist Emily Denlinger that speaks to the role of art, ritual, and resilience. The project intersects with Folklore, Photography, and Motion and is realized as a zine published by Kolaj Institute; a short film produced by Denlinger that will debut at Kolaj Fest New Orleans in 2026; and a folio of photographs available for exhibition.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Collective Effervescence & the 21st Century
Around the world, communities conduct masked rituals to foster community resilience, focus community energies, ward off evil, and reinforce shared cultural heritage. These large gatherings result in what Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) called, collective effervescence. The French sociologist coined the term to describe the heightened sense of energy and unity individuals feel when they come together as a group for a shared experience. These intense experiences transform people, locations, and objects into sacred symbols for that community.
With Durkheim’s ideas of collective effervescence in mind, art academic Emily Denlinger was “interested in resiliency and why some artists are more resilient than others.” She developed a project that interrogates the relationship between art, ritual, and resilience in response to increased social divisions that emerged in the United States in recent years. She wrote, “My interest in resiliency came into sharper focus during the political and social turmoil of the past decade. In 2023, I started creating figures wearing elaborate collaged costumes. After sharing these figures on Instagram, the algorithm started directing me to view the account Masked Traditions, global photography by Ashley Suszczynski. I was fascinated by Suszczynski’s photographs of Kukeri performers in Bulgaria. Kukeri wear monster-like costumes that they inherit or construct themselves out of taxidermized animals and highly detailed beaded textiles.”
Denlinger continued, “The collage figures I create capture my psychological interpretation of reality and provide space to process the nonfiction and documentaries I consume. News I have been reading for the past several years has been inspiring references to cell reproduction, genetic mutations, breakdowns in communication, purposeful mutations of information, and misinformation campaigns. My analog collaged figures are created from fashion magazines and vintage National Geographic magazines; media sources known for perpetuating a distorted reality. I work to subvert and recontextualize their imagery. I photograph or collage my figures into ethereal amorphous dreamlike landscapes, void of a particular time and place.”
Suszczynski’s masked rituals inspired Denlinger to create “a locative panorama collage of fifty-one characters gathering at dawn in preparation to perform together, to welcome in joy and positivity and to scare away negative forces.” The original Gain of Function: New Mutations/Old Traditions was completed in 2024. The result was a large-scale panoramic scroll that was approximately two-feet wide and thirty feet long.
During the 2025 edition of Kolaj Fest New Orleans participants were invited to create their own figures to collaborate on a locative collage project. Collage figures were photographed in theatrical landscapes that each individual helped create. Denlinger and her team–Abbey Grey, Grace Merickel, and Allie Murphree–also worked with the artists to create stop-motion animation. This new collection of artwork is a new iteration of the project: Gain of Function: New Mutations/Old Traditions/Collective Effervescence
The artworks stand at the intersection of photography and collage and operate like locative collage in an artist-created landscape. They also function as a kind of 21st century folklore or speculative folklore with each character potentially representing a magical creature or masked performer in some yet-to-be-imagined ritual. As such, they have the potential to exorcise demons, purify or sanctify the space they inhabit. Like the odd, creature-like figures of early 20th century surrealists, they too are a response to deeply troubled times and offer us the opportunity to find a collective effervescence to see us through them.
–Ric Kasini Kadour
SOURCES
Durkheim, Émile. (1964). The elementary forms of the religious life (Joseph Ward Swain, Trans.) George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (Original work published 1915), p. 381.
Current Activities
ZINE
Gain of Function: New Mutations/ Old Traditions/ Collective Effervescence
DETAILS: 40 pages | 7″x5″ | perfect bound booklet | ISBN 978-1-927587-76-8 | 2025 | Published by Kolaj Institute & Kasini House
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WORKSHOP
New Mutations: Carnival
Friday, 16 January from 4PM to 7PM
Kolaj Institute Gallery
Emily Denlinger invites members of the New Orleans community to bring throws and other Carnival ephemera to Kolaj Institute Gallery on Friday, 16 January from 4PM to 7PM and help build a miniature landscape that will be used in a locative collage reflecting on the New Orleans Carnival celebrations. LEARN MORE or RSVP
ARTWORK
Gain of Function: New Mutations/ Old Traditions/ Collective Effervescence Folio
The folio “Gain of Function: New Mutations/Old Traditions/Collective Effervescence” consists of thirty-six, 16”x12”, locative collage photography prints on 51lb Epson premium matte paper in an edition of 5, plus one A/P. The folio is presented in an archival box with a label, a guide and a numbered, title page signed by the curator. One set of folios is included in Kolaj Institute’s archive. The remaining folios are available for sale with the proceeds going to support the mission of Kolaj Institute. The folio is also available as a traveling exhibition. Please send an email to inquire about exhibiting or purchasing folio.
EXHIBITION
Pictures at the Intersection
Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA through 24 January 2026
Featured in this exhibition is Gain of Function collage prints by contributing artist Charmi Shah (Seattle, Washington, USA); Emily Denlinger (Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA); Kayle Rice (Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA); and Madeline Sorel (Brooklyn, New York, USA). LEARN MORE
WORKSHOP
New Mutations, Old Traditions: Stop Action Animation Workshop
On 21 January 2026 at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Creative Assembly Resident LaVonna Varnado Brown and Artist Emily Denlinger will co-facilitate a workshop on stop motion animation. LEARN MORE
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Emily Denlinger at Kolaj Institute Gallery
Emily Denlinger will be in residence at Kolaj Institute 11-31 January 2026 where she will create a new landscape and invite the public to contribute to the project. LEARN MORE
ARTIST RESIDENCY
Carnival as Folklore
Emily Denlinger will presenter her project at this five-day, in-person collage artist residency at Kolaj Institute in New Orleans, 25-30 January 2026. LEARN MORE
FUTURE
Short Film
Gain of Function: New Mutations/Old Traditions/Collective Effervescence will be the subject of a short film that will debut at Kolaj Fest New Orleans, 10-14 June 2026.
(Image: Stopmotion still from Carol Lynch)
Project Lead
Emily Denlinger
Emily Denlinger has worked as Area Head and Professor of Digital Arts, Photography and New Media at Southeast Missouri State University since 2009. Originally from Ohio, she holds BFA in 2D Art with a Concentration in Photography from Bowling Green State University, and an MA in Digital Art and an MFA in Photography and Digital Art from Maryland Institute College of Art. Her collages have been exhibited across the USA and are held in collections internationally. Denlinger’s collage animation, Angel Baby vs. Drone Eagle, was part of Collage on Screen program at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2024. She also took part in Kolaj Institute’s Collage on Screen Artist Residency in 2023 and the Collage & Illustration Residency: Frankenstein. In addition to her gallery practice, Denlinger creates accessible wearable art that is created for commissions or sold in the local community at boutiques and fundraising sales. In her free time, she works with the Cape Girardeau County Clerk’s office to promote voting and voter registration and as an election judge. Denlinger will be the Artist in Residence at Kolaj Institute 11-31 January 2026 where she will create a new landscape and invite the public to contribute to the project. Learn more at the Kolaj Magazine Artist Directory and the artist’s WEBSITE.
Image: Still from Angel Baby vs. Drone Eagle by Emily Denlinger (short collage film, 51 seconds, 2024)
Contributing Artists
Laura Cannamela, Catherine Cassel, Jordan Cerminara, Dawn Conry, Diane Davis, Tanya DiMaggio, Lynn Gall, LuEllen Giera, Suzanne Gore, Beth Guipe Hall, Dawn Hudson, Anthony D Kelly, Kathryn Kim, Serli Lala, Charlie “Chachi” Lewis, Carol Lynch, Jaclyn McCabe, Grace Merickel, Kelly Moran, Jennifer Myhre, Debora Joy Nodelman, Jillian Ohl, Julie Eisenberg Pitman, Kirk Read, Kayla Rice, Robin Roberts, Darlene Sardinsky, Joi Sanchez, Robert L Schaefer Jr., Mia Schon, Charmi Shah, Madeline Sorel, Beverly Thames, Sue Thomas, LaVonna Varnado-Brown, Kristen White, Karin Williams, and Zelda Zinn.
Project History
AT KOLAJ FEST NEW ORLEANS
Resilience & Welcoming in Hope: Collage, Installation, & Photography
Kolaj Fest New Orleans was a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, 25-29 June 2025. Denlinger manifested a new iteration of “Gain of Function: New Mutations/Old Traditions” as a collaborative project. At the New Orleans Healing Center, she created a collage installation in which participants were invited to place collage figures which were photographed or filmed. LEARN MORE