Week 1- Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'

'experiment', 2009 (installation, claymation, digital video and mixed media)

 1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?

Claymation is the generalized term for clay animation, a form of stop animation using clay. The term claymation was coined by its creator, Will Vinton, owner of an animation studio that worked with clay artists to create clay animation. Claymation involves using objects or characters sculpted from clay or other moldable material, and then taking a series of still pictures that are replayed in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement. (Beam, 2011).

Animation is basically nothing more than a group of technologies which can create a moving image on a screen. (Kitson, 2008, p.11) The animators use clay fighues to be the characters so that become claymation.

After I watched the short film in Experiment (2009) by Venice Biennale and some other short videos in claymation on YouTube, I found out claymation is a kind of short movie build up by a sets of still pictures and all the characters are made by  three-dimensional form clay. It tells story and has some commons with a cartoons.

2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?

It is a collection of giant surreal plants forming an erotic Garden of Eden.The flowers are beautiful but they give me a different feeling from looking some real flowers in a park. Maybe I will feel scared and depressive if I am standing in front of those plants.

Experiment is an installation recreating a Garden of Eden from hell. It's a garden covered with creepy flowers. They are so big they dwarf visitors, their colours and shape are nauseating. ( Regine, 2009)

"Culture itself is not a monolithic institution, but is made up of many subcultures, which participate to varying degrees in the total culture". (Langer, 1997, p.144)

3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?

She wants us to explor the deep feeling of our heart and mind and pushes us out of the comfortable zone.

"A music composed by Hans Berg contributes to the uncomfortable atmosphere. "( Regine, 2009)

In the storyies, you can see the puppet spreads the body, does some sexual foreplay etc.

"Djurberg's characters confront injustice, fight back, feel guilty and then retreat; but her work playfully exposes the wrongs and gets us thinking about change. " (Laster, 2009)

As the catalog of the biennale says: Through these minutely composed sequences of stop-motion animations, Djurberg toys with society's perceptions of right and wrong, exposing our own innate fears of what we do not understand and illustrating the complexity that arises when we are confronted with these emotions. ( Regine, 2009)

4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?

"Djurberg's strength as an artist is still best represented in her stop-motions made of clay, a material she uses in a gestural childlike manner that naturally complements and diffuses her pointed socio-political subject matter." (Modigliani, 2009).

She twisted fairy tales and turned her daydreams and fantasies into simple yet disturbing stop-motion animations. (Laster, 2009) The story "twisted scenarios tend to begins with fairy-tale's sweetness and disslove into grisly sadism". (Yablonsky, 2010)

I think her works are suit for adults only.

5. There is a current fascination by some designers with turning the innocent and sweet into something disturbing. Why do you think this has come about?

Because it will give us a deep impresstion and remain fresh in our memory.

6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?

Her ideas are novel，Her way to represent the ideas or stories are unusual, and her works are refer to different areas of art and design. Her work really can catch people's eyes and emotions. So that's why I think Djurberg's work is so interesting.

7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.

It's a real experiment about Djurberg's work. I agree with her work is "complex, abstract and obscure" likes other animation "occupying a space between filmmaking, art, graphic design"  (Faber & Walters, 2004, p.6) and spacial design. I like her work is refreshing and outlandish but it's a little bit too provocative and violent for me.

Reference

Beam, J. (2011, May 20) What is Claymation?. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from
      http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-claymation.htm

Yablonsky, L. (2010, December 1). Clay Mates. The New York times magazine, wonder women:      WOMEN'S FASHION FALL 2010, 160.

Kitson, C. (2008). British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor. Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press.

Faber, L., & Walters, H. (2004). Animation Unlimited: Innovative Short Films Since 1940. London,  England: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

Langer, M. (1997). Animatophilia, cultural production and corporate interests: The case of Ren & Stimpy. In J. Pilling (ed.) A Reader in Animation Studies. Sydney: NSW, 144

Modigliani, L. (2009). NATHALIE DJURBERG. C magazine, 101, 40.

Laster, Paul. (2009). NATHALIE DJURBERG. Art in America , 97(3), 135-136.