Allison Schulnik

A mysterious egg contains an impish creature who can grant great power, for good or evil. Brendan Bean, a kindly family man, finds himself face to face with the bizarre creature, and before long a friendship for the ages develops. Meanwhile, the depraved Benny Piazza leads his deranged militia on a violent quest to reclaim the magical homunculi.

An ensemble of musicians is gathered in a performance space. Each musician has their own instrument, means of amplification (if needed), and pair of headphones. All musicians’ headphones are plugged into one outputting sound source (usually an iPod with many headphone splitters). Music (usually a well known song from the popular music canon) is played from the sound source and the musicians are instructed to play something, anything that they hear in their headphones as accurately as they can on their own instrument. The musicians never know what songs or sounds they will be hearing in advance. The audience only hears what the musicians are playing and none of the original sound source, thus creating a “tracing” of the sound source material.

Mound is a celebration of the moving painting, in which more than one hundred pallid puppets – clowns, spectres, gnomes, wraiths, and ghouls – writhe, sway, plod, and transform with awkward grace to the mournful musical accompaniment of It’s Raining Today(1969) by legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker (also known as Noel Scott Engel).

Long Hair Hobo, one of the artist’s favorite characters, springs to life in brightly colored and joyous clay (an enchanted palette in a savage world), his limbs and clothing beating to the rhythm of the music. He comes face to face with his alter ego, who is transformed, melts and changes into a rainbow before morphing into a lake. Long Hair Hobo is wonderstruck at the sight of this magnificent visual feast intercut with images of fields and greenspace, in what is a masterful integration of the real and virtual. An eloquent testimony to the impossibility of an unchanging identity, this work reveals the uncertainty and instability that accompany human beings throughout their lives.

Traditional clay-mation and stop-motion animated film.

16mm live action/stop-motion animated film

An ensemble of musicians is gathered in a performance space. Each musician has their own instrument, means of amplification (if needed), and pair of headphones. All musicians’ headphones are plugged into one outputting sound source (usually an iPod with many headphone splitters). Music (usually a well known song from the popular music canon) is played from the sound source and the musicians are instructed to play something, anything that they hear in their headphones as accurately as they can on their own instrument. The musicians never know what songs or sounds they will be hearing in advance. The audience only hears what the musicians are playing and none of the original sound source, thus creating a “tracing” of the sound source material.

Mound is a celebration of the moving painting, in which more than one hundred pallid puppets – clowns, spectres, gnomes, wraiths, and ghouls – writhe, sway, plod, and transform with awkward grace to the mournful musical accompaniment of It’s Raining Today(1969) by legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker (also known as Noel Scott Engel).

Long Hair Hobo, one of the artist’s favorite characters, springs to life in brightly colored and joyous clay (an enchanted palette in a savage world), his limbs and clothing beating to the rhythm of the music. He comes face to face with his alter ego, who is transformed, melts and changes into a rainbow before morphing into a lake. Long Hair Hobo is wonderstruck at the sight of this magnificent visual feast intercut with images of fields and greenspace, in what is a masterful integration of the real and virtual. An eloquent testimony to the impossibility of an unchanging identity, this work reveals the uncertainty and instability that accompany human beings throughout their lives.

Traditional clay-mation and stop-motion animated film.

16mm live action/stop-motion animated film

A dramatic, medieval tale about an evil queen and her court jester. He performs for her, she forces him to kill himself, and then he explodes, and his gooey innards cover her entire giant castle and it magically morphs into something less evil.

A wandering through the primal emotions of birth, motherhood, body, nature, metamorphosis and dance.

16mm stop-motion animated film

A stop-motion, animated film by Allison Schulnik that features Grizzly Bear's "Granny Diner," the Japanese bonus track from their 2006 album, 'Yellow House.'