35 Days

HD, color, stereo, 6:53 min, 2025

A lost pet catalyzes a neighborhood during the pandemic lockdown.

“35 Days” is an experimental, stop motion animation about what happens when a coalition of strangers answers the call to locate a missing cat during the pandemic lockdown of 2020. Voicemail messages from neighbors reveal the empathy and core connection we have for and with our pets and each other, demonstrating how a virtual community can transcend the isolation of the pandemic.

Music excerpts by Frank Pahl from “Music for Architecture.”
Animation assistant: Sophie Hullinger
Graphics assistant: Valerie Matula

ABOUT

Heidi Kumao creates video, machine art, and installations to explore ordinary social interactions and their psychological undercurrents. Emerging from the intersection of sculpture, theater and engineering, her work demonstrates how small gestures, even the most private and poetic, can become political acts. Her work has been exhibited at Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, San Jose Museum of Art, Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires and numerous other venues worldwide. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Creative Capital grant and others. She is a Professor in the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

INSTAGRAM