Poison Ivy
Hazel Gore - 2011, 5:01, stop motion animation/video, Glasgow, Scotland
The animation is about a young woman named Ivy who is traumatized by an event which has taken place in her life: someone close to her left when she was a child and has never returned. The narrative highlights her disturbed subconscious state as she struggles to cope with reality. Her way of coping is self harm. The story unfolds when she receives a letter she cannot open. She believes this letter is from the absent person.
Hazel graduated in painting/printmaking from The Glasgow School of Art in June 2010. During her time at GSA she developed an interest in stop motion animation and video. Since 2008 she has been experimenting with the use of animation and video to produce short, narrative films which create illusion within a real setting and by using real people and objects. Since graduating, Hazel has exhibited at several events including In Time exhibition, London, Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh, The New Contemporaries Show, Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh, The Edinburgh Short Film Festival, Hay-on-Wye Film Festival, Wales, and The Compass Festival of Lunacy, Bristol, where she won best film award. Future screenings include Bus Stop Cinema, Elysium Gallery, Wales, August/September, 2011, The Venice Biennale, Italy, September, 2011, and The Sydney Underground Film Festival, September, 2011. Hazel plans to continue to write and produce short animation and video and will continue to experiment with different techniques and themes.
Questions & Answers
ATA: What techniques did you use to make Poison Ivy? Are there any animators' work that you find particularly interesting or inspiring?
HG: I used stop motion animation to make Poison Ivy. In the past I have combined stop motion animation and video but this time I decided to primarily focus on using stop motion animation to create illusion within a real setting.
I am really inspired by Jan Svankmajer who is renowned for surrealist animation. Other film makers who have influenced me include Maya Deren, Jack Smith, David Lynch, and Kenneth Anger.
ATA: How do you work on the musical collaborations with Andrew Pattie?
HG: Andrew helped produced the animation so I discussed the story and my thinking behind it on a regular basis. He therefore had a full grasp of what I wanted to create and this helped him compose relevant music, which complemented the storyline, and helped to emphasise the trauma that the central character, Ivy, was going through.
ATA: Can you share with us a little more of the dreamlike, metaphorical meaning of the story?
HG: Ivy is a very troubled young woman who is struggling to cope with life. She finds it difficult to distinguish between reality and subconscious state and the animation tries to show this by using a series of metaphors, including, the moss and ink in the opening scene, which represents self-harm. I don’t want to say any more about the symbolism and metaphors because I don’t want to ruin the ambiguity.
Q&A by Liz Wing
