Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'.
Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg's intricately constructed claymation films are both terrifyingly
disturbing and artlessly sweet.
The new works created for the Venice Biennale explore a surrealistic Garden of Eden in which all that is natural goes awry.
She exposes the innate fear of what is not understood and confronts viewers with the complexity of emotions.
Nathalie Djurberg was awarded the silver lion for a promising young artist at the Venice
Art Biennale 09.
(http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6886/nathalie-djurberg)
Research Djurberg's work in order to answer the following questions;
1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?
It is a form of animation that works with clay figures that are moved the slightest bit and then captured by stop-motion photography to produce a short film and a realistic look. Clay animation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable" made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay
2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?
Surrealistic Garden of Eden sugests that the land is a paradise/haven, as in the bible the garden of eden was seen as a perfect utopia like world, however the garden in Djuerbergs work isnot so and is more of dream like, almost like something you'd see in a Lewis Caroll novel. 'All that is natural goes awry' refers to the oddities in her claymations, the strange disturbing distortions that carry on in her films.
3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?
These are the feelings that are caused because of the materials used and the actions that the characters perform. So this causes us to see claymation refered to as a childrens demographic and we can easily see children viewing these animations. Sometimes when we see something we're unsure about we dont know what to think of it, so we automaticaly subconciously place it into a group in our brain
4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?
Because Djuberg uses the sexuality element to the children's stories it takes the sweetness right out of the works. Children's are view as happy, cheerfull fairy tales, perfect stories with happy endings , whereas is a child was to view Djurberg's work they would most likely be emotional traumatised.
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?
Designers today are not always looking for the sweet and innocent designs, most of us know that the designs and decisions that are the most horrifying/disturbing are the ones we remember the most, i think this came about because designers are always looking for new designs to shock the world.
6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?
I think that Djurberg's work is so interesting and was chosen for the Venice Biennale because of how Djurbergs work is really disturbing, her work makes you feel squeamish and uneasy whilst watching it. It makes you feel slightly freaked out at the plants and sculptures in her display, then watching the disturbing video works doubles the the total uneasy feeling of it all.
7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.
Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg's intricately constructed claymation films are both terrifyingly
disturbing and artlessly sweet.
The new works created for the Venice Biennale explore a surrealistic Garden of Eden in which all that is natural goes awry.
She exposes the innate fear of what is not understood and confronts viewers with the complexity of emotions.
Nathalie Djurberg was awarded the silver lion for a promising young artist at the Venice
Art Biennale 09.
(http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6886/nathalie-djurberg)
Research Djurberg's work in order to answer the following questions;
1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?
It is a form of animation that works with clay figures that are moved the slightest bit and then captured by stop-motion photography to produce a short film and a realistic look. Clay animation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable" made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay
2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?
Surrealistic Garden of Eden sugests that the land is a paradise/haven, as in the bible the garden of eden was seen as a perfect utopia like world, however the garden in Djuerbergs work isnot so and is more of dream like, almost like something you'd see in a Lewis Caroll novel. 'All that is natural goes awry' refers to the oddities in her claymations, the strange disturbing distortions that carry on in her films.
3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?
These are the feelings that are caused because of the materials used and the actions that the characters perform. So this causes us to see claymation refered to as a childrens demographic and we can easily see children viewing these animations. Sometimes when we see something we're unsure about we dont know what to think of it, so we automaticaly subconciously place it into a group in our brain
4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?
Because Djuberg uses the sexuality element to the children's stories it takes the sweetness right out of the works. Children's are view as happy, cheerfull fairy tales, perfect stories with happy endings , whereas is a child was to view Djurberg's work they would most likely be emotional traumatised.
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?
Designers today are not always looking for the sweet and innocent designs, most of us know that the designs and decisions that are the most horrifying/disturbing are the ones we remember the most, i think this came about because designers are always looking for new designs to shock the world.
6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?
I think that Djurberg's work is so interesting and was chosen for the Venice Biennale because of how Djurbergs work is really disturbing, her work makes you feel squeamish and uneasy whilst watching it. It makes you feel slightly freaked out at the plants and sculptures in her display, then watching the disturbing video works doubles the the total uneasy feeling of it all.
7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.
I think Djurbergs work is amazing how it causes you to feel so disturbed and uneasy, her work can put you in the stories.
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