Erin Dunn “Oceanic Dancer”

CUE Art Foundation

This event has ended.

CUE Art Foundation presents an exhibition by Erin Dunn featuring the premiere of a new stop-motion animation film, Oceanic Dancer. Accompanying the film is a large diorama populated with vignettes from Oceanic Dancer, as well as a series of watercolors. Each of these interconnected bodies of work explores the spiritual potential of the female body, and repurposes surreal imagery from myths, fairy tales, and folk traditions.

Central to the exhibition is Oceanic Dancer, a short non-narrative animation featuring a cast of intricate puppets performing in the shadows of a landscape modeled after the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. In psychoanalysis, the term “oceanic feeling” refers to a sensation of limitlessness or oneness with the universe. Freud attributed this phenomenon to the latent influence of the primitive infant ego, but for Dunn, the concept serves as a lens to examine the mystical power of the body and unpack the conventions of performance and ritual. The stop-motion choreography in Dunn’s film recalls the elegance of classical ballet, but her whirling puppets also evoke the transcendent feeling of abandoning inhibition and losing yourself in movement and rhythm.

Dunn’s multi-faceted practice incorporates a variety of media that she renders in a grotesque fairy tale aesthetic. She crafted each element of Oceanic Dancer by hand, from the layered, psychedelic backdrops to the articulated puppet armatures
and elaborate costumes. A diorama, filled with sculptures and paintings featured in Oceanic Dancer, offers a window into her meticulous, labor-intensive process. The film is the conclusion of nearly two years of work.

A series of loose, energetic portraits on canvas occupy the project space. Saturated in airbrushed neon watercolors, the feminine, anthropomorphic characters in these portraits share the same mythical provenance as those in Oceanic Dancer. However, here they are removed from the hot-glue glitter world of stop- motion, and captured mid-smile—or mid-sneer—like characters from a storybook.
Based in Brooklyn, Erin Dunn holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from Rutgers University. She has been awarded residencies from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Residency Unlimited, and Stitching Kaus Australis (Rotterdam, Netherlands). Dunn’s work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1 (New York, NY); the New Museum (New York, NY); MOCA (Los Angeles, CA); W139 (Amsterdam, Netherlands); and The Kitchen (New York, NY). Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Bullett Media, DIS Magazine, LA Weekly, V Magazine, and The Fader, among others.