MOTHER KNOWS
At the bottom of a lake, a loving mother watches over her reckless son.
2021
Trace Monotypes, Live Action Puppetry (Sculpey, Acrylic Paint, String)
I made this film in the spring semester of my junior year. This was the first film I made without a clear story at the beginning. I just knew that I wanted to make a lotus root puppet, and I wanted to animate with monotypes. I had just made a monotype film and had fallen in love with the process. Trace monotype animation has two conversations taking place: the explicit line drawn by you and the natural noise the plate wants to get through. It feels similar to a copy of a copy. Like a foggy memory or message.
Knowing that I was going to have this lotus root character, I started animating the process of cooking a lotus root. After a few seconds of animation, I realized I didn't animate the person peeling the root. It was gross and wrong! I then made a list of gross and wrong things my mother would strongly disapprove of (many things that I and many others do). This is what the film would become.
The mother is taken, sliced, consumed, then excreted.
