Jess Dunn & Sylvia Thomas: Drafts

For their first collaboration, Jess Dunn and Sylvia Thomas were prompted to create a piece focusing on the new renovation for the Contemporary Art Museum of Indianapolis (CAMi) campus. In an attempt to interpret history and the building itself, the artists combined their backgrounds in animation and music composition to create an experimental documentary. Through exploring archives, primary source documents, and artifacts found inside the building, the artists learned this site took on many forms: from the land of the indigenous peoples who first inhabited it, to farmland, to various industrial developments, and now its current state as a premier contemporary arts complex. For Drafts, Dunn and Thomas compiled their research directly into the video, collaging archival maps and footage, artifacts left behind on site, and field recordings taken within Garfield Park and on the campus. These remnants, in addition to animation and a co-composed music score, echo the layers and textures that have formed the building’s identity. The animation of the horse as a throughline in the piece references the stables used by the Weber Dairy, which existed in the original and oldest part of the building until 1947 when the Tube Processing Factory purchased the land. As CAMi expands to embrace natural elements and remember the heritage of the land, the artists believe the horse is a symbol of humanity’s simultaneous connection to nature and development. This juxtaposition amongst the other visual layers reveals the many iterations of history and industry tied to CAMi’s location. About the Artists Specializing in animation, Jess Dunn treats illusion as both inspiration and medium. Their work explores the mechanics of motion, finding the “magic” in the gaps between frames where perception shifts. From childhood flipbooks to complex stop-motion, their practice has evolved into the creation of immersive worlds that bridge physical and digital spaces. Through an experimental process, they often build custom circuits to distort visions via voltage manipulation or, conversely, allow raw materials to speak for themselves. The result is a living, multi-sensory environment built for exploration. Sylvia Thomas is an artist and writer from Indianapolis. Her work focuses on sex, gender, grief, and euphoria. Over the last 10 years, she has exhibited and performed her work across North America and Europe, including the 2025 CLAVO art fair in Mexico City and a presentation for the United Nations Envoy on Youth in 2021. Sylvia is a long-term artist in residence for Big Car Collaborative, a 2024-25 Creative Renewal Arts Fellow through the Indy Arts Council, and a recipient of the 2023 Indianapolis Creative Risk Grant through the Herbert Simon Family Foundation.