1. What do you understand by the word 'claymation'?
Claymation before even researching it, I think that it is animation and clay put together. Claymation came about in the 1980s and is a method of animation in which clay figures are filmed using stop-motion photography.
- What is meant by the term 'surrealistic Garden of Eden'? and 'all that is natural goes awry'?
‘Experiment’ was supposed to be a “surrealist garden of Eden where all that is natural goes awry”
Firstly looking up ‘The Garden of Eden’ I found out that it is something that has come out of the Bible as the place where Adam and Eve (first man and woman) lived after they were created by God. For many medieval writers, the image of the Garden of Eden also creates a location for human love and sexuality, often associated with the classic and medieval trope of the locus amoenus.
In the Bible the description of The Garden of Eden says-
‘Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.[...] The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.’
The story from the Bible says-
God charges Adam to tend the garden in which they live, and specifically commands Adam not to eat from theTree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve is questioned by the serpent concerning why she avoids eating from this tree. In the dialogue between the two, Eve elaborates on the commandment not to eat of its fruit. She says that even if she touches the fruit she will die. The serpent responds that she will not surely die, rather she and her husband would "be as gods, knowing good and evil," and persuades Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve eats and gives the fruit to Adam, who also eats. At this point the two become aware, "to know good and evil," evidenced by an awareness of their nakedness. God then finds them, confronts them, and judges them for disobeying.
God expels them from Eden, to keep Adam and Eve from also partaking of theTree of Life.. The story says that God placed cherubim's with an omnidirectional “flaming sword" to guard against any future entrance into the garden.
In the account, the garden is planted "eastward, in Eden," and accordingly "Eden" properly denotes the larger territory which contains the garden, rather than being the name of the garden itself: it is, thus, the garden located in Eden. The Talmud also states (Brachos34b) that the Garden is distinct from Eden.
Experimentet 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. Sun never lights up the garden, it's set in a perpetual crepuscule, in the basement of the Padiglione delle Esposizioni (the ex-Padiglione Italia in the Giardini of the biennale.) http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2009/10/nathalie-djurberg-who-won-the.php
It is a story about sexual awareness and the creativity of which that is a part.
Her work has been called a ‘Surrealistic Garden of Eden’ this is because when I first looked at the clay flowers and the video presented in the ‘Experiment’ exhibition I felt like it was rather bizarre, and dreamlike in meaning this it gave me the impression of a display of something out of a theme park such as the log flume ride at Rainbows End or a dark abandoned flower shop. This video of the exhibition that I watched online (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWrPZGgudMM) gave me the feeling that it has been given this name because no one noes what the garden of eden looks like and this is an interpretation of a good and bad world and that we are blind sometimes of what goes on and blind to the difference of bad and good. The flowers are pretty but surrounded with darkness, strange music and odd events in the claymation videos. ...Evil, bad, good fruit, bad fruit, poisonous but pretty and uneatable, fake, unnatural.
This is supposed to be like a bit of a disaster with flowers made of wax leaking onto the floor, it has a disastrous, monstrous look to it yet it is so wonderful and imperfect. The movies and the flowers go well with the words ‘awry’ and ‘surrealistic’ because they mean bizarre, wrong, wonky, strange which go with the aspects of the movie such as decapitation.
3. What are the 'complexity of emotions' that Djurberg confronts us with?
Djurberg confronts us with things that we do not want to think or talk about such as issues with right and wrong. She portrays gruesome things such as rape and decapitation but in a sick humorous way to make it bearable to watch and then gather the information she is trying to tell. There are emotions of fear in her videos that she provokes and Djurberg herself is a person that is not afraid of pain, and feels that “Most people have feelings, have heartaches or are afraid of dying or of pain.”
4. How does Djurberg play with the ideas of children's stories, and innocence in some of her work?
She has used a child like type of animation such as the children’s series Wallace and Grommet.
- 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?
“That is why you do art. It’s for the stuff you don’t dare talk about.” - Djurberg.
I find this statement relevant to this question because in todays age we do not really have any limits to as far we can push the boundries that it why art is so fasinating because people can let their mind run completely free through art by expressing themselves and problems that have not been brought to the surface that people do not want to bring, through discussion and chats. Therefore people are making work that was innocent and sweet into something outsiders see as disturbing because they are telling the truth or a discussion that needs questions to get answers. It creates something for viewers to really think hard about instead of just being attractive to the eye which is simply easy. Innocent and sweet also starts to get a bit boring after a while therefore going to the extreme of taking that idea and making it disturbing is appealing to artists. Also in todays modern world we are beginning to realise that not everything can be perfect or made perfect there are always going to be disasters and bad things happening in the world and I think that artists today as well are developing on that idea of imperfection and are making pieces of art more disturbing because they want to show the harsh reality of the truth behind things. They have realised that it is not just about making a piece of art beautiful it is about self expression, views and what is going on with the world around us.
“I think most of the women in my videos are really beautiful,” Djurberg said, “but I am also attracted to not-so-perfect looks. For me perfect is boring. Everyone who thinks they are a bit ugly tries to hide it. And the hiding is unattractive, but when I see someone who stands up for how they look, it takes my breath away.” This shows and relates to her work that she is not into perfection and finds it boring.
- In your opinion, why do you think Djurberg's work is so interesting that it was chosen for the Venice Biennale?
I think that her work uses different mediums, such as claymation, photography, sculpture, painting, music and the stories that she tells in her short claymation films. They are very strange and kind of blew me away when I first saw them because I did not no what to expect. I think that they chose her work because she is an upcoming artist and has a lot of strangeness to offer to people and a lot to tell in her work, her work provokes questions for the audience which is important and gives you a lot to view, absorb and think about.
- Add some of your own personal comments on her work.
The snake film was the first video I watch on Djurberg on Youtube and it started off funny, and a little odd, but happy, then I got completely into it and was a bit horrified when the snake all of a sudden turns on the person and starts decapitating it. She does amazing displays as well such as her garden of eden. I thought her work was odd and hard to watch at first but I think after thinking about her work and what kind of emotions and horror it brings to the surface I find it interesting of what she is trying to convey and what is going through her mind when making them. I like the dark side to her work because it has depth to it.
The video was pure Djurberg, whose twisted scenarios tend to begin with fairy-tale sweetness and dissolve into grisly sadism- August 19, 2010
Clay Mates, Talk | By LINDA YABLONSKY | August 19, 2010
“That is why you do art. It’s for the stuff you don’t dare talk about.”
- kind of like with Alexander McQueen he wanted to show in his work things that people do not want to see or talk about ‘war, religion, sex etc’ like Djurberg she finds that she doesn’t want to talk about stuff she wants to make it to show it instead
“I think most of the women in my videos are really beautiful,” Djurberg said, “but I am also attracted to not-so-perfect looks. For me perfect is boring. Everyone who thinks they are a bit ugly tries to hide it. And the hiding is unattractive, but when I see someone who stands up for how they look, it takes my breath away.”
