Tess Martin: Ginevra is on view at Bellevue Arts Museum June 30 – October 22, 2017

Bellevue, WA— Bellevue Arts Museum will be showcasing an installation of work by independent animator Tess Martin, featuring her new stop-motion animated film Ginevra. Alongside the film presentation will be exhibited several physical paper cut-outs from the film. This presentation will be the first public screening of Ginevra. 

Martin is an independent Northwest animator who works with cut-outs, ink, paint, sand, or objects. Her films have displayed at galleries and festivals worldwide. The exhibition will be on view concurrently with Cut Up/Cut Out, an exhibition from the Bedford Gallery in California of national and international artists who explore the captivating methods of decorative piercing and cutting. The two exhibitions both highlight the incredible versatility of this ancient method of art-making and the diverse ways it is being employed by contemporary makers.

Based on Percy Shelley’s Poem The Dirge (itself based on the Florentine urban legend of Ginevra degli Almieri, who is rumored to have woken up a full day after her supposed death), Ginevra tells the tale of a woman mourning the murder of her daughter, only to find that the death is not quite the ending that she expected. Though technically unfinished upon Shelley’s untimely death, his wife Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (author of Frankenstein) published the last completed segment of the poem in 1824, allowing the mysteries of its meaning and the ambiguities of an untold ending to live on in the public consciousness.

This film is part of a series of short animations based on poetry titled Cinematic Campfire Poetry, and was supported by the IFP Screen Forward Lab and produced by Monticello Park Productions. Director Tess Martin wrote the film to fit the poem, and animated it using paper cut-outs on a multi-plane animation stand, one frame at a time.

Tess Martin: Ginevra is organized by Bellevue Arts Museum and curated by Lucile Chich and Benedict Heywood.

ABOUT BELLEVUE ARTS MUSEUM

Bellevue Arts Museum is a leading destination in the Pacific Northwest to experience art, craft, and design. BAM engages the community through exhibitions, programs, and publications, featuring regional, national, and international artists. bellevuearts.org.

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