Theme and Variations

Theme and Variations is a stop motion animation by Yuliya Lanina that features music by Olivier Messiaen as performed by violinist Tatiana Berman and pianist Irina Botan. Painted images of anthropomorphic creatures are set in motion against a lush background of cloudy skies and green pastures, their movement hewing closely to the music. Unlike the composer who uses the variations form to reveal 'a world in a grain of sand', Lanina plays it in reverse - by zooming out. The fabled inhabits of the multifarious realm are then shown to be fragments of one consciousness, that of a Cupid-eagle longing for a Psyche-butterfly.