Lisa Duhaime-Gibson

IMPROMPTU VISIT

Screening has concluded

Impromptu Visit is an animated artwork using symbolic imagery and sounds to address issues of personal safety, innocence, change, trauma, recovery and anxieties associated with Covid-19 pandemic. The ominous ghost is an anonymous entity bursting the girl’s balloon. This is sudden and traumatic, bringing with it a violently changed awareness, provoking worries about safety and symbolizing the release of past beliefs, innocence and ignorance. It cannot be undone.

The plague of locusts brings fear and uncertainty but also the realization that in numbers, there is power, depending on how we use it; for the common good or destruction of our humanity. Locusts may represent plague, but grasshoppers are also a symbol of good-luck, reminding us to take leap of faith and move forward into a better future.

Once the plague has passed, the girl, altered by experience and disruption, is aware that the world around her has changed. She can now see beyond the comfort bubble of naivety that she once held.

During this time of unprecedented pandemic response, fear, anxiety and change are suddenly at the forefront for many. The song ‘Ring Around the Rosie’ an iconic children’s nursery rhyme that has been linked to past plagues and many deaths is sung in an eerie yet innocent voice.

Animated Digital Collage Illustration with Sound Art
Audio by Thegamemakerqueen

The bodies we wear hold mysteries. What lies beneath is a hidden story; tragic, joyful, heroic and often wrought with anxiety. Time pushes us all forward, and we carry on, retaining all that we have experienced, like a leaf floating on a river full of unexpected rapids and quiet periods of calm, deep water.

Lisa Duhaime-Gibson’s mixed-media collages, illustrations & animations combine imagery, video, atmospheric sounds and recycled materials to bring us into her own story and breathe life into her art.

Lisa uses multi-media disciplines to create moments in time that provoke a deeply emotional reaction, as we recognize our own stories within these images. Lisa’s work often reveals the complexity of being a woman and brings awareness to mental health and domestic abuse issues. This life we all share, though sometimes riddled with darkness, is also brilliant. It is our frailty, vulnerability and courage that make us all human, and that is beautiful.