Mack Werner

BFA New Media

Website: mackwernerart.com

ARTIST STATEMENT: 2020 made apparent the significant danger of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy. Our Trail Beneath the Clouds engages with the epistemically problematic nature of the source of our daily intake of information and how it may breed tribalism, lies, and violence, thereby inhibiting progress. My film employs the use of hand-drawn animation and digitally painted backgrounds. Its dialogue is sourced from movies in the public domain whose scripts became a symbiotic tool of creativity and inspiration that supplied my initial plot framework with vignetted scenes. Animated films inherit a stereotype of innocence, approachability, and trustworthiness which I use as a scattered narrative device that obeys or exploits the audience’s expectations. My imagery is adopted from a mixture of traditional animation, philosophical concepts, religious allusions, and current events.