Nyssa Collins
I am a performer, puppeteer, and animator from North Carolina. I am currently based in Knoxville, TN, where I am an MFA candidate in Time Based Art at the University of Tennessee. I learned most of my important values about collaboration, mischief, and art for the people from Jan Burger and Donovan Zimmerman while working at their giant puppet company Paperhand. I also studied piano at Humboldt State University. (BA Piano Performance). I am grateful to the Aslan Foundation, Loghaven Artist Residency, and the University of Tennessee for many types of support.
I am available for all ages workshops in stop motion animation, giant puppetry/object sculpture and performance, shadow puppetry, and stilt walking. I am also available for commissions.
contact me: nyssacollins (at) gmail.com
I create narratives about the mystical systems of meaning that humans use to navigate a complex world. My stories begin at the edge of our perception, where our imaginations do a great deal to create our experience. I am interested in the limits of our ability to fully see the forces structuring the world - where the time scale is too enormous, where systems are too complex, and where our desires and fears complicate our judgment. Many of my works are elemental, lacking words and resembling mythic origin stories, in an effort to uncover impulses and desires that are essential to the human experience. I also enjoy playing with potent imagery which has some kind of meaning to almost everyone - snakes, turn of the century factory buildings, the Biblical apocalypse - but treat these symbols without restricting them to a single meaning. Instead, I am interested in facilitating an internal journey for the viewer through deeper associations that the imagery suggests. I am inspired by Eastern mysticism (especially as it has filtered in through the Western zeitgeist, like by way of psychedelia and new age media) which treats reality and identity as in flux. But while my work is, to some degree, deliberately destabilizing, I greatly value trust with audiences. I use humor, wonder, and play as gentle tools to foster a benevolent curiosity about the great mysteries.