Kelly Sears, “One night the dream changed”

One night the dream changed, an exhibition of stop animations by Kelly Sears, experimental filmmaker is on display Feb. 4-21 in the Helen E. Copeland Gallery. Sears appropriates and collages motion imagery from American history and culture, often creating mythical narratives and social commentaries on mass culture and society. 
Sears’ sources images from a myriad of photographic Americana the type of old manuals and magazines that are usually laid to rest in unkempt thrift stores, or the forgotten tomes of home and garden catalogues. Pictures synonymous with the American ideals of success, health, and the ideal nuclear family are fused together to construct myths that shift between the official histories and the uncanny.Simultaneously, Sears explores contemporary narratives of power, such as manifest destiny, occupation, and surveillance.