Isabel Peppard ACMI Sunday Talks Interview

Isabel Peppard ACMI Sunday Talks Interview

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) has launched a free Sunday Talks program to coincide with Tim Burton: The Exhibition, beginning with an insight into a Burton favourite, The Nightmare Before Christmas, on Sunday 18 July.

The program brings together artists and composers whose work has a particular relationship to the work of Tim Burton with commentators who will lead discussion about Burton's work.

Recalling his time working with Tim Burton in the early nineties on hugely popular stop-motion The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), South Australian Art Director, Deane Taylor, will kick of the series with a discussion of his role in the film and the creative challenges of making such a work.

The Sunday Talks program in the following weeks features local stop-motion artist Isabelle Peppard, animators Van Sowerine and Isobel Knowles, composer Dale Cornelius, the creator and puppeteer behind the acclaimed The Grimstones, Asphyxia, as well an entertaining look into 'gothic suburbia' with a panel of experts chaired by Dr Saige Walton.

Free Sunday Talks
The Art of The Nightmare Before Christmas (Unclassified 15+)
Sun 18 July 2010

Described as "A stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation", Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a movie milestone for all ages. Join award-winning Art Director Deane Taylor, as he shares his unique experience working on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. In 1978, Deane got his start in the industry with Hanna Barbera, and has been working in animation ever since, performing a variety of roles ranging from art direction through production design and direction on feature films, TV series', and commercials throughout Australia, Asia, Europe, and the US.
Hosted by ACMI exhibition curator Kate Warren.

Into the Shadows: gothic suburbia in the work of Tim Burton (Unclassified 15+)
Sun 1 August

A suburban childhood in Burbank, California, played a significant part in the formation of Tim Burton's creative landscape. Burton likens the sunny confines of his early life growing up on Evergreen Boulevard to 'Dante's Inferno', a 'hellish' time in which his major role was that of the outsider. Yet suburbia has appeared as an ongoing theme or character in many of Burton's films,
Chaired by Dr Saige Walton, join Constantine Verevis, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Anika Ervin-Ward in a lively and entertaining discussion about Tim Burton's work.

A Gloomy Heart - the animation of Isabel Peppard (Unclassified 15+)
Sun 8 August

In exploring the gothic sensibility that is so potent in Tim Burton's work we look to other artists closer to home who, similarly explore the dark emotive world of the doomed. Isabel Peppard describes her work as 'stop motion animation with a horror aesthetic'. Isabel and other members of her creative team will identify the characters landscapes and stories that inhabit these stop motion animation worlds such as the fatal love odyssey Gloomy Valentine as well as offering us a sneak peek into her next gothic-styled animated film.
Hosted by writer and broadcaster Richard Watts.

Tactile City: the state of animation in Melbourne (Unclassified 15+)
Sun 15 August
Melbourne is home to a thriving animation community who draw on their city's suburbs, laneways, culture and people to create rich and imagined worlds. Meet local animators, Van Sowerine, Isobel Knowles and Heng Shen Yeap who are all at the forefront of animation and have worked on a wide variety of film, TV, installation and new media projects. Find out what their favourite part of the Tim Burton exhibition is, and get a firsthand insight into the inspiration and creative process behind their own work.
Hosted by writer and broadcaster Richard Watts

Scoring a Story (Unclassified 15+)
Sun 22 August

In film, music often speaks in ways which its characters cannot. The composer's role is to really 'score' the emotions of a story by creating the sounds and tone of a world. For many directors, like Tim Burton, this creative collaboration with a composer is crucial. Dale Cornelius has been writing music for Film and Television for the last 17 years to much acclaim. From Mary and Max to Till Human Voices Wake Us, Dale's diverse and accomplished soundscapes have been described as 'stunning' and 'hauntingly beautiful'. This talk provides a rare opportunity to hear about how sounds and music are created and produced to tell a story, to evoke a feeling, and to show us the presence or absence of beauty.
Hosted by writer and broadcaster Richard Watts

Creating The Grimstones (Unclassified 15+)
Sun 12 September

The Grimstones is the creation of Deaf Circus performer turned puppeteer Asphyxia. Since its Melbourne launch mid 2008 The Grimstones - Hatched has toured Australia constantly to rave reviews. In this magical Gothic fairytale about the Grimstone family, there is a girl who reads dreams, a baby boy with three legs, a mother who sews garments lined with warmth and joy, and a grandfather who heals people with his magical concoctions. Join Asphyxia, who will take us behind the scenes of this beautiful and dark production, and find out about how Tim Burton has influenced her own work.
Hosted by writer and broadcaster Richard Watts
Note: This event will be Auslan-interpreted.

The Sunday Talks Series
The Sunday Talks series will run at 2pm in Studio 1, ACMI, Federation Square Melbourne, for the duration of the exhibition, which is on show until 10 October. Admission is free but tickets must be collected at the Tickets and Information Desk on the day as seats are limited.

Interview with Isabel Peppard

Isabel Peppard is a successful sculptor and animator who has worked with Patricia Piccinini and Adam Elliot.

Can you tell us how your work has a particular relationship to the work of Tim Burton?

Isabel Peppard: I think the main way that my work can be linked to Burtons is that we both have a commitment to macabre imagery in our creative expression.


Your work is described as exploring the "dark emotive world of the doomed", is this intentional?

Isabel Peppard: Yes it is intentional. I believe that the individual's perception of the world around them is coloured by their psychological state of being. Sometimes when you are in a bad mood, the world around you can look very grim and appear full of ugliness whereas other days when things are brighter, you can only see beauty in the world. I tend to use my production designs to create physical embodiments of emotional landscapes.


How would you describe your work?

Isabel Peppard: I would describe my work as philosophical animation that addresses some darker elements of the human condition. The things that truly mortify me are not vampires, werewolves and zombies, but rather, everyday things. The horror of waking up one morning and wondering where your life went, the horror of losing whole chunks of yourself on the road to adulthood and the horror of wondering dreamlessly through a colourless world.

The use of classically horrific imagery adds gravity to a struggle that is often internal.


You work as a sculptor and animator, do you prefer one or do you find they both work hand-in-hand?

Isabel Peppard: I couldn't say that I prefer one or the other. The beauty of being a sculptor and an animator is that you can create these creatures through your sculpture and then breathe life into them through animation.


Could you tell us about Gloomy Valentine and the inspiration behind this animation?

Isabel Peppard: Gloomy Valentine is about a young woman who has lost her love and, as a result of unsurmountable sorrow, is beginning to lose her mind. Nightmarish shadow creatures that start to appear in her world express her diminishing grasp on reality. I was inspired by that feeling of absolute despair that engulfs you in the early stages of a relationship break up. I like the idea of finding beauty in negative emotions by channelling them into creative expression; it is like a sort of alchemy.


What are you working on at the moment?

Isabel Peppard: At the moment I am working on a short horror stopmotion animation, working title 'Butterflies', with my producer Warwick Burton and the support of Screen Australia. It is about a woman who is being devoured by the unfulfilled dreams of her childhood and has to fight her way out of the hellish half-life of a dreamless existence. Thematically and visually, it is a very dark film, but not entirely without hope. I am very excited about the creation of the puppet characters as I'm applying a lot of the hyper real silicone techniques that I have refined through my work for artists such as Sam Jinks and Patricia Piccinini . Though the character design is still stylised and cartoony, these techniques will inject the puppets with a unique fleshy lifelike quality.


You worked on the hugely successful Mary and Max with Adam Elliot, how was that experience?

Isabel Peppard: Working on Mary and Max was an incredible experience. Adam and Melanie Coombes (the producer) employed stopmotion animators from all over the country, which meant that we had a big chunk of the national stopmotion animation community all in one building. It was a fascinating pool of talents and personalities to be involved with. I was mainly employed in the puppet department and helped with the build of over 200 characters! Adam Elliot was great to work for. He had a very well defined vision for what he wanted to produce and was good at communicating his unique aesthetics to the crew. He was heavily involved in the art department and had to personally approve every prop set and puppet before they could make it onto the animation shooting stages.


What originally inspired you to choose this type of art?

Isabel Peppard: I always had a great love for horror movies and the characters in them so I started studying special effects makeup. As part of my work experience I ended up volunteering at a few different animation studios around Sydney. This is what sparked my interest in stopmotion animation. I guess in a way, my creature effects work has bled into my animation and as a result a lot of the characters I create would not look out of place in a horror movie.


Do you have a website our readers could visit?

Isabel Peppard: We have a website where you can watch my first film Gloomy Valentine and check out a few pics and a brief production blog. It is www.deadheartstudio.com.au. For a more comprehensive look at my animation, sculpture and performance as well as an insight into the behind the scenes machinations of Mary and Max and Patricia Piccininis art studio, come and check out my talk at ACMI.


Interview by Brooke Hunter