Saint Catherine: Phenakistascope
For my next Phenakistascope I chose to portray Saint Catherine of Siena. As her mummified head is on display and still worshiped today, I wanted to try and physically re-materialize her back to her living form; bringing her back into the 21st century. I think it is quite disrespectful to have beheaded a woman and encased them in a box, to be glared at, indefinitely. This is why I wanted to bring her back to life in her living form. You can ask advice from a real person but not a shriveled head.
I decided to explore the transition from mummified head, through all the layers, to Saint Catherines animated image; or how she is portrayed in various paintings. I wanted to acheive a materialisation of the Saint through simple animation, so I filled my 8 frames with my own interpretation of how this occur; bone to muscle to skin. Rather than simply having a series of 8 oil paintings, I have added a dynamic aspect to the piece; the observer can actually witness Catherine coming back to life.
I've tried two stop motion animations; one zoomed in on the face and one with all 8 faces. I think that the zoomed in version looks far better as you are focused on one face; with the other you can see all 8 faces transitioning and it is rather overwhelming.
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