I understand 'claymation' to mean the animation process which incorporates clay models or figurines. The models are manipulated and filmed to produce an image of lifelike movement, usually by a method called stop-motion photography. Each frame, the figurines would be repositioned just slightly so that when the film streamed, the animation would come to life.
2. What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?
The term 'surrealistic' refers to something that isn't real/unrealistic, like a dreamscape for example, or a distorted/manipulated image. The 'Garden of Eden' in biblical terms was referred to 'paradise', or 'the Garden of God'. It was the place where God put Adam and Eve, the first two human beings. These words 'surrealistic Garden of Eden' refer to the Garden that Djurberg has created. It explains how twisted, distorted and unrealistic her Garden of Eden looks. We usually see gardens to be peaceful, relaxing places but hers is quite the opposite, which is why it is described as 'surreal'.
The words 'all that is natural goes awry' is a link between nature or the living and 'wrong/unpredicted'. The word awry means 'to twist away from the correct course'. Considering Djurbergs works are about sadism and the darker side of the human soul, the words together could mean that nature and all that is living will always astray from the proposed path, sometimes for the worst leading towards death or other negative outcomes.
3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?
When viewing Djurberg's work our emotions get intensely mixed and thrown around. Our imagination is constantly at play, being mixed with scary, horrific emotions and also feelings of happiness and excitement at times. The weirdest of the feelings is that of surprise and unexpectancy, how you are unsure of how to feel half the time, not knowing what is supposed of you.
4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?
In a common children's story or tale, the characters are usually first faced with a dark situation and then everything turns happy ever after at the end. Djurberg plays with this idea, reversing the story line, with the happy situations at the start and ending with the dark, horrible situations. She still incorporates ideas of fantasy from children's stories, such as colorfulness and unrealistic features and design. She also still includes the idea of innocence in her work, but not making it as wondrous as in children's books. Making it more of a 'useless' innocence, about how the children are as dark and monstrous as the adults.
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 the nowaday designers and visualists are branching out further, still trying to capture those not seen before ideas, trying to set themselves apart from everyone else. It could be their view of the next step, as we have had our time of the happily ever after tales and need something that excites us in a new way. They could also be using this as a method to show their views on what has happened to society and trying to give the new generation insight into the new disturbing world, trying to rule out all of the fake stuff that is becoming more and more distant.
6. In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?
I think it was chosen because it has a dramatic style and difference from the norm. How she has captured the reality of situations in the world, mixing the innocent with dark, terrible situations has created impact. Also how your emotions are twisted and warped when you are viewing, it definitely helps you make more connections with everything that is going on. One of the most contributing factors I think would have been her style and her decisions throughout her process of making. The claymation method and the work behind her modeling has definitely given her work an independent edge, separating it from others and helping her success.
7. Add some of your own personal comments on her work.
I find her surrealistic style always interesting to explore. The mixture of fantasy design and colourful vs dark sets with her story lines, and also her audio choices aswell, the way she has brought everything together definitely keeps me intrigued. An idea that stands out to me, is how she has reversed the fantasy tales story line from being a happy ending to a dark ending. From this she could be symbolizing how us as humans have almost come to far for there to be any happiness at the end. If this was infact the case I think the new generation will have a more realistic view of life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Edenhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/awryhttp://artnews.org/artist.php?i=1211http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/nathalie-djurberg#!/photos/47242/1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathalie_Djurberghttp://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/6886/nathalie-djurberg-experiment-at-venice-art-biennale-09.htmlhttp://londonscrawling.wordpress.com/tag/claymation/http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2009/10/nathalie-djurberg-who-won-the.php
