Nathalie Djurberg's 'Claymations'

1. What do you understand by the word Claymation?

Claymation is a type of animation where the clay is molded and altered differently in each frame taken (normally using stop motion?. The frames are played quickly one after the other to allude to continuos motion.

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

The 'surrealistic Garden of Eden' is Nathalie Gulbergs interpretation of what she considers to be a utopia, Her view of a perfect world. Her exhibition in the Venice Bienniele comprises of her clay animation filled with beautiful flowers, which then takes a change in direction where she exposes these beautiful natural scenes into some what of an dark horror

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

Djurburg presents these scenes in a blunt manner. The scenes showed are going against what we would consider to be acceptable in society and almost inhumane. The mixture uptopia

of theand horror with scenes began with looking normal where everything is fine and simply quickly turn into something quite horrific. The innocence of her scenes give us a peaceful happy feeling but once you notice what is actually happening behind everything your mood instantly shifts. the innocence is what initially sucks us in and once the seedy and disturbing scenes are happening you cannot help but look with interest and disgust. You are left with emotions where you hope that this could not be true although these things i think we all have heard and joked about.

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

Djurberg uses these innocent ideal we have as children of these beautiful perfect world where there is only good and plays on them. The clay animation is a media that is used and seen in children's cartoons. She uses the innocence of children in her work to question us adults whether things in society are really what they portray to be. I find the Images of the popes abusing the innocence young girl play with this idea of how easy it is to be brainwashed into what we may think is right as we are not exactly aware of what is really happening. This poses questions to the society we live in today.

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 this current fascination of manipulating the innocent and the sweet into something disturbing has come about as more and more people are becoming aware of how maybe the world we are living in is not as sweet and innocent as its portrayed to be. People today i believe have more courage to step outside of this circle in society where they have their own opinions. This raises questions to how we live. maybe we all are innocent children unaware of how business use images to manipulate us and that behind these images the intention is not as innocent as we think.

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 Durbergs work was selected due to the way in which art today has this undercover license to get people to think about alternatively to the general society. This power to question

things and their morals is something that stands out in Djurbergs work and is why it is so interesting and why i think she received this award.

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

As i took the time to understand and dissect Djurbergs work the more i found it interesting. It got me thinking of how naive i am and that if i took the time to dissect and look into most things that are happening around me i could find interesting things embedded under what is actually presented. i also think that because of her work having a more in-depth meaning than just the visual aesthetics of clay animation that people in general would also not look into her work and stop to examine. People in society are naive and unaware on a daily basis.