Everyone has a secret. Major Kovalev from The Nose is no exception from this notion, regardless of his social status. Indeed, he struggles to hide his secret by covering his face with a handkerchief and hesitating to publish a “missing nose” advertisement. The whole story revolves about the major’s missing nose, otherwise seen as his “little” secret, and I derived the theme of my collage from this concept.
The collage first begins off with a man sitting in a corner, who is depressed and frustrated because of all the secrets he possesses. The constant variation of colors in the background immediately follows. This change in colors represents his fluctuating feelings and mood. At times he may feel reluctant to spill his secrets, but at other times, he may also feel slightly more encouraged to step out of his comfort zone. Subsequently, the ray of light emerges along with open hands of people. They represent hope and the attempts of others to help the man. The fact that they gradually appear demonstrates that the change does not happen overnight. The open window serves as a medium for a dove, the symbol of hope, to come into the scene. It gently flies in, as if it wishes to comfort the man. Then the deconstruction begins. The dove spins and falls into the space, which symbolizes for the loss of hope and optimism in the man’s world. Outside the window is a thunderstorm, which then disappears into the darkness. Even the hands fade away, ultimately leaving the man alone. The ray of light flickers and vanishes. The only thing that did not disappear from the collage is the man. However, a brick wall slowly covers him up, eternally confining him.
(mid-phase of the collage)
I love what you did with the ray of light; it’s really quite beautiful to look at. I’m too busy looking at it instead of writing this comment…
Anyways, I feel that your animation is a very good representation of what it feels like to have secrets. We all have those intimate secrets that we are terrified of sharing even though we have this deep, nagging feeling of wanting to share it with someone close to us. There is some hope that we can be liberated from the chains attached to those secrets. However, that window of opportunity is very small so you would have to take a chance. Otherwise, what you feel inside of you becomes overwhelming and would eventually consume you – like hitting a brick wall. In my opinion, that brick wall in your animation is a powerful statement; it can feel quite devastating when you run into one.
My first reaction to your animation was, “Wow.” The creative aspect was incredibly well done. I love how the background and foreground of the collage are mainly barren except for the window and hands. The emptiness was chilling and really represented how the need to keep our secrets hidden can make us subconsciously withdraw from family and friends. The different flashing colors can also show how overwhelmed the man is with the burden of his secret. In a way, he is being both mentally and visually overstimulated, thus causing his breakdown as we see by how hunched over he is. However, I noticed that while the man is hiding away from the help people attempt to give him, the colors of the animation are fairly dull and grey. This reminded me of how we always envisioned Gregor in a grey environment. Your animation made me think of the connection between Gregor’s loss of humanity and daily monotony to the empty stillness holding onto a secret can make us feel.