“Mound” by Allison Schulnik
This morning I find myself idly singing, “It’s Raining Today” by Scott Walker…despite the sunny weather outside. It’s just stuck in my head. I first heard the song on an Art Gallery Tour I went on about a month ago. One of the pieces featured was a claymation video entitled “Mound” by Allison Schulnik, showing at the ZieherSmith Gallery in Chelsea. Of the seven artists we viewed that day, Allison’s exhibition was my favorite!
It’s a 4 minute and 20 second clip of a bunch of odd, dark and ghoulish figures–made of clay, feathers and other materials– in various stages of movement. Some sway back and forth, some change facial expressions, some dance and do much more. All set to the relaxingly beautiful Scott Walker tune. It’s a really, REALLY astonishing piece of work! It took Allison 8 months to create “Mound;” and, in my opinion, it was WELL worth it! Take a look below:
My favorite part is around the 2:45 mark. 
Betchu can’t watch it just one time…
This was probably the second to last exhibit we saw on the tour, and after it was over, I rounded right back to ZieherSmith–where they had the video projected on a wall, playing repeatedly–to see it again. I couldn’t get enough of it. Part of it was the music…the tune really sucked me in and catered, quite nicely, to my mood on that particular day. But more than that, I was transfixed by the images, and rendered immobile. I just didn’t want to be anywhere else. So I stayed and watched. For about 45 minutes. I took a nice lean against a wall and camped out.
As it turns out, I happened to catch the exhibit mere hours before ZieherSmith was scheduled to take it down. I got to it just in time. How awesome is that! Sorry y’all had to miss seeing it in person, lol, but you can definitely have your fill above.
Go on and watch the video again…you know you want to. And, also, you can peep the New York Times article about “Mound” -> here.
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