Heroines in Stop Motion: Animate Her by Irushi Tennekoon
The word "heroine" often conjures up the images of legendary queens or fictional characters with super powers. Having participated in the artists residency programme "Creating Heroines," funded by the British Council, in Kathmandu in 2019; Irushi Tennekoon decided—upon her return to Colombo—to develop films which would compel audiences to rethink their definition of a heroine. Taking this idea as her point of entry, Tennekoon's series Animate Her retells the stories of several ordinary Sri Lankan women on extraordinary journeys. The ongoing series includes seven short stop motion animation films, focusing on Asha de Vos (marine biologist and ocean educator), Amila de Mel (architect), Sybil Wettasinghe (children’s author and illustrator), Thaji Dias (professional dancer), Anya Ratnayaka (wildlife conservationist), Lakmini Wijesundera (IT professional) and Ramani Muttettuwegama (lawyer).
A storyboard from the film on children’s author and illustrator Sybil Wettasinghe.
Planning the animation sequence and character design for the film on Thaji Dias, principal dancer and teacher at the Chitrasena Dance School, Colombo.
Each film depicts anecdotes from the lives of these women, as they rise to the challenge and emerge successful beyond patriarchal limitations. In Tennekoon’s experimental style—mixing claymation, stop motion and 2D animation—the colourful, highly expressive characters speak to a variety of audiences. The narration in each film is retained in the protagonist’s voice, giving them the agency to convey their own stories.
Recreating the scenography around architect Amila de Mel’s narration.
During a studio visit, Tennekoon referred to stop motion as an “illusion,” where thousands of photographic captures played in sequence create the impression that the movement is, in fact, seamless. The medium gives her the ability to depict stories of the modern heroine in short but comprehensive and detailed sequences. The “illusion” of stop motion comprising clay figurines, miniature architectural structures and landscapes is juxtaposed with the real voices of the women highlighted in each film.
Architect Amila de Mel’s makeshift workstation recreated for the film using cardboard and other materials.
3D models made out of clay used in the films on marine biologist and ocean educator Asha de Vos, children’s author and illustrator Sybil Wettasinghe and architect Amila de Mel.
The process of constructing the narrative is complemented by Tennekoon’s educational and professional background in literature with specific interest in comics and graphic novels. Experimentation with the medium of stop motion is an extension of the artist’s curiosity about employing the hybrid word-image form in sequence to narrate a story. She approaches each film as a research project, gathering as much information as possible during focused interviews with the women portrayed in the films. While listening back to these interviews, Tennekoon develops storyboards, which represent the ideas and anecdotes that remained with her from each interview. As she illustrates each character and their props, the story slowly begins to come to life. In developing the illustrations into 3D figures using simple found objects such as clay, wood, metal and cardboard, she works with a group of multidisciplinary artists. The series is thus produced by a team led by Tennekoon, comprising Yoshitha Perera, Natasha Senanayake, Shahdia Jamaldeen, S. Surendran, Shenuka Corea, Gayathri Perera, Dinushika Seneviratne and Dileepa Jayakody. These artists bring in expertise related to architecture, graphic design, photography, background scores, dubbing and subtitling. The shooting is the most time-consuming, often taking multiple days, due to the nature of stop motion being constructed of many captures lined in a timed sequence.
All images courtesy of the artist.
