Semester 2- Week One
Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'.
Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg's intricately constructed claymation films are both terrifyingly
disturbing and artlessly sweet.
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'?
(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).
2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?
After googling 'Garden of Eden - Nathalie Djurberg' and seeing pictures of her artworks I found it quite intriguing and it made me think of alice and wonderland..or something else that is sort of 'made up'. Think it's the use of colors and the way that they are inlarge and not actualy flower size that has made me think that way. As for 'all that is natural goes awry' - I was thinking when looking at the photos of her exhibition that the lighting in the room that she used was very dark, which created her flower works to cast shadows on the floor making the room have a bit of a spooky feel to the room and because of the size of the works it could be quite scary almost. So that could be why 'all that is natural goes awry'.
3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?
There are a whole lot of emotions involved in Djurberg's work. At first you think that it is sweet and nice and then you see that Djurberg has also wanted us to see a different side to the flowers and 'sweet' videos, this side being 'terrifyingly disturbing'.
4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?
Djurberg's uses child like figures in her works which shows the idea of innocent children, innocently playing. But Djurberg also plays innocent with not so innocent which creates the complexity of emotions in her work too.
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?
I think that designers these days do not always want to create something 'pretty' and 'nice' and much a people don't admit it, we like to see things that disturb us...this is the kind of stuff which leaves the long lasting impression.
6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?
I find Djurberg's work extremely interesting. I think it was chosen for the Venice Biennale because of the way Djurberg combines two very different media's (film and clay modelling) and also plays 'sweet' on 'bad' and by doing this Djurberg creates a fascinating, terrifying, weird and beautiful jungle, which shouldn't - but does work.
references.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-claymation.htm
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6886/nathalie-djurberg-experiment-at-venice-art-biennale-09.html
http://pudri.blogspot.com/2009/10/la-biennale-di-venezia-2009-nathalie.html
I agree about the Garden of eden being 'made up'
ReplyDeleteIt is a lot like the art work we have been looking at in ALVC the last few weeks.
Surreal and dream like. Anyone would think this artist is on some serious drugs. But it is just vivid imagination.
I like what you said about he flower also. She has taken a beautiful thing that is seen as nice and lovely and the way she has created her work to make it look more 'spooky' as you said is quite amazing really.
I agree with what you said about simply making things look 'pretty' and how that isn't enough anymore (if it ever was). The fact is we are human, and therefore we are curious. As much we don't want to accept it, we will sit there and continue to watch a clay tiger lick some girl where it shouldn't be licking, just because it is so odd and contrasting to what we would expect.
ReplyDeleteContrast is always bold and attention attracting, and sometimes can replace and substitute for actual visual aesthetic, as it did in this case.
I really like your posting.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watched her claymation film at first time, actually I was horrified because her work's moods are very dark and figures look gueer(strange). For example, in her video a woman's breast is disfigured and flowers make horrible garden by porcelain materials and wilted shapes unlike normal flowers that people have images of beautiful things when they think about flowers like roses and tulips. It is like scoundrels background when I saw terrible landscapes in cartoons or animations. Moreover surrealistic Garden of Eden also maximizes her film's story by making it different with garden images.
In my case, claymation was not interesting to me When I watched her film at first because many mediums show it like her film but I really like why she made it. Even though I can see claymation all the time, most of claymation's topics are common things for children and it is made by artist for expression of human's features unlike her work. Her work is different with others. For example, hidden topics are dark such as war, violence, sexuality and sadism which are made by human in life. She wanted to express darkness unlike claymations by giving strong impression. At first time It is Cute but after long time or if we understand her opinions it will be profound.
I think it is a matter of course about that her work was chosen for the venice Biennale.
Hi Christine i like Djurbrg`s work because sit is tell us something edifyingly about the sorrts in without the words and used other way.
ReplyDelete