Tyler Starr
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Burning Wants

The narrative structures of the animation Burning Wants and the accompanying booklet are inspired by the Rollo Peters' collection of stage designs on hotel stationary at the Haas Arts Library at Yale University. A key part of the imagery for this commissioned project comes from Rollo’s performance in The Age of Innocence as Newland Archer with his yearning to run off with the Countess Olenska to Japan, a country I had just recently left with my family following the earthquake and meltdowns at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Additional imagery comes from an event in the Tokyo neighborhood where I lived called the Yanaka Five-Storied Pagoda Double-Suicide Arson Case, Paradise Alley (one of the red-light districts outside of U.S. military bases in Japan), and references to the mysterious fire that occurred at Yale’s Paul Rudolph Hall in 1969.

clip 1 2  Burning Wants
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