Becoming an Oyster
Becoming an Oyster is an animation leaning on the metaphor of climate change and generational trauma. The animation’s narrative relies heavily on familial relationships as a device to illuminate loss, abuse, and generational trauma. The story unfolds through the eyes of two young brothers trying to bring their missing father back to their world through a bizarre bathtub ritual. It slowly emerges that their father is dead, having had an overdose in the bathtub. The underlying truth of the fantastical narrative indicates the brothers are dissociating, with repeating deluges of bath water washing the viewer in and out of reality.
Sinkholes of a Faultless Void is a series of large-scale charcoal drawings that coexist alongside this animation. They are utilized throughout the animation’s narrative — the motif of the flooded house is explicitly about portraying the aftermath of an apocalyptic weather event. It also implies the Anthropocene notion of reciprocal traumas tossed back and forth between humanity and the environment (we cause ecological damage thus generating more turbulent weather events that in turn damage us).
Created, Animated, and Directed by Michael Covello and Elizabeth Schneider
Music Composition by Christophe Preissing
Screenplay by Michael Covello and Elizabeth Schneider
Voice Acting by Ian King Morris