1-27-12: Maryland Morning Screen Test: Karen Yasinsky

Karen Yasinsky

Wednesday night at The Windup Space, Tom Hall interviewed filmmaker Karen Yasinsky and screened some of her films for this month’s Maryland Morning Screen Test.

Karen Yasinsky turned to filmmaking to surmount the limitations of painting, and the illustrated and stop-motion animations she’s created over the last decade are transfixing. They’re often set in nature, but they never feel quite natural. They center on characters who can convey with just the slightest gesture how difficult it is to truly connect with another person. “We are defined by our relationships,” Yasinsky says, “but we’re always alone.”

Karen’s work will be featured in Washington College’s ArtNOW exhibition, opening February 10. Karen is also collaborating with mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen (who was featured on Maryland Morning earlier this month) on a project based on György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments . It will be featured at Baltimore’s Contemporary Museum this spring.

Web extra: Karen tells a funny story about why the puppets in her more recent work have fewer fingers than the older ones:

Photographs by Valerie Paulsgrove.  Please check out her other work, too.

Also to check out: the band Lands and Peoples, whose people Caleb Moore designed our snazzy Screen Test poster.

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