Sofya Glebovna's GIF Loops Explore Circular Narratives
Artist Sofya Glebovna uses animated GIFs to investigate the tension between circular loops and linear storytelling. In her work "All Work and No Play," inspired by the film "The Shining," she tells the story of a young writer facing a blank page through a series of GIFs on a single webpage. Each GIF repeats a single scene infinitely, but scrolling the page reveals a linear narrative. In "I Love My Life" (2016), she expands this approach into a triptych of three short stories composed of GIFs arranged more freely but still following a linear sequence. As the user scrolls, the music changes, with short sound loops accompanying the story. The result is a hybridization of GIFs, cinema, and web pages, where remediation itself becomes looped.
Key facts
- Sofya Glebovna creates GIF-based works exploring circular vs. linear narratives.
- "All Work and No Play" is inspired by the protagonist of "The Shining."
- The work features a series of GIFs on a single webpage that form a linear narrative when scrolled.
- "I Love My Life" (2016) is a triptych of three GIF stories with changing music.
- The music consists of short sound loops that accompany the story development.
- The works hybridize GIFs, cinema, and web page formats.
- The article was published on Artribune Magazine #39.
- The article was written by Matteo Cremonesi.
Entities
Artists
- Sofya Glebovna
Institutions
- Artribune