|
Eventually,
sculptor Alastair Dickson finds a use for just about everything he finds
kicking around his studio, including even an old crab's claw and his 9-year-old
daughter's old baby sleeper.
"I use a lot of found objects," explains Dickson, the Toronto-based
artist who created wonky, cork-headed characters for the eight-minute
short film The Stone Of Folly. The stop-motion animated film, produced
and directed by local first-timer Jesse Rosensweet, won the jury prize
for short films at Cannes and was screened last night at the Toronto International
Film Festival as part of the Perspective Canada program.
Many of Dickson's characters are also on display at Yorkville's Edward
Day Gallery until Sept. 29. The artist will be present at the gallery
today between 2 and 4 p.m. for the official opening of the show. Written
by Rosensweet and Dickson, the film tells the story of a medieval doctor
who tries to cure insanity by removing the mythical stones from his patients'
heads.
Close examination of Dickson's puppets reveals his technique of using
familiar objects - among other things, a dog toy, fake fur, a fish float,
a bit of a zipper, a plastic toy propeller, a Calabash gourd, a perfume
bottle top and a bit of inner tube - to create his unique, 8-inch high
characters.
"The crab claw, I'd had it for three or four years," explains
Dickson, who had been creating figurative sculptures in a similar style
before Rosensweet approached him about two years ago with the idea of
making a film. "I could never find a use for it, but it just seemed
like the perfect thing," he says, pointing to the menacing "cranial
opener" he created for the doctor to use during surgery. For several
characters, he employed gloves to create faces. "This granny figure's
face was made from my next door neighbour's mother's gloves. I inherited
them. Gloves can become really amazing characters. "I laugh a lot
in my studio," he says, explaining that he works by simply surrounding
himself in raw materials, reading from the script, and waiting for a character
to emerge. "I'm quite selective in my choosing of materials,"
he says. "They have to be a bit bruised and have a certain patina
to them."
Creating completely moveable figures for animation was a little different
than making static figures for the purposes of display, but Dickson is
a sculptor at heart. While animators tend to leave their figures unfinished
in places where the camera won't reach, his figures can be viewed from
any angle. And is Dickson cooking up new characters for another animated
film? Not yet. In fact, he's not even sure he'll continue in the medium.
"It's a very different process than doing work for an exhibition
and then selling it," says the artist, who also holds down a day
job as a cabinetmaker and woodworker. "It's a much longer process
than sculpture. It just seems to keep on going and going."
To see pictures of Dickson's work, visit www.alastairdickson.com.
September
14, 2002
TOP
|
|
|
