Personification of Grief

My interpretation to grief is that it’s a kind of antivirus and a process which has to happen, if the subject does not have grief injected into them, the pain of their loss will be two overwhelming and eventually will lead to death. My character climbs onto the subject and injects Grief into the heart from the back. The Grief injection numbs the pain and suffering but as well as injecting, it also sucks out the pain from the subject; this is a slow process and depends of how bereaved the subject is. The creature slowly dies as the pain is transferred, at first the pigmentation in its skin disappears, then a layer of skin falls off from it leaving the raw cartilage body underneath, the cartilage body disintegrates and leaves a worm like parasite hanging from the back of the subject and remains attached until the subject reaches acceptance. The grief parasite eventually falls off having absorbed the pain and disintegrates.

My character is mainly constructed from cartilage; the top layer of skin is a jelly / soft rubber texture which is slightly transparent at first, once attached it comforts the subject by cradling there upper body and using its flaps of skin like a blanket, the red lumps are soft and heat up slightly. Once the top layer of skin falls off, what’s left is a slightly transparent cartridge body or shell which has the grief parasite inside it. The parasite is made of a jelly/ bile which is kept together by a very thin layer on hard skin, inside are cells which absorbs the pain transferred from the subject and replaces it with grief. The grief itself is the florescent blue substance stored on the back of the parasite which is carried and released by my character.

Grief - Five Stages

Five Stages of Grief

Grief

Glyptapanteles Wasp

After the wasp impregnates a caterpillar with its eggs, the behavior of the host caterpillar begins to radically change. First the caterpillar stops moving. Then, after the eggs hatch and the pupae crawl out of the caterpillar's body, the caterpillar involuntarily protects the pupae from attack by thrashing wildly in the presence of predators. Although the exact biochemistry used by the wasp larvae to transform an otherwise benign caterpillar into a Manchurian Candidate-like slave remains unknown, the researchers did show that the presence of a zombie caterpillar guardian performing "violent head-swings" significantly increased the survivability of the pupae. My character will impregnate grief into its host and just like the Glyptapanteles wasp, it controls the mind of the host as it goes on this personal journey.

The Turning Point

I’m finally reaching a turning point for my character; I’ve been developing two completely different directions to take my personification of grief. Originally I imagined grief as a tall gloomy character which unleashes its own depression on its victims via its presence alone; aesthetically it would be dark with features not far from a stereotypical witch, long crooked nose and saggy skin. The main characteristic of the face would be huge drooping eyes sockets which hang all the way to the floor exaggerating the exhaustion felt; the character also carries a rather frightening white mask which he places over the victim. The mask has a huge smile and represents false emotions which you show when experiencing grief, having to put on a happy face in the denial phase.

I Still believe this personification of grief is fairly good, the image in my head oozes horror and pain but seems to obvious, it’s a personification of the emotion felt rather than an embodiment of a character which gives off grief which I feel stronger about. I’ve moved towards an insect like character which appears when its subject is experiencing grief, my concept includes the five stages of grief and elements of impregnation and gestation. I want to create a character which attaches itself onto the subject, injects Grief into the heart of the subject and stays attached until the sufferer eventually reaches acceptance. It might seem quite horrific but as well as injecting grief, the character will also comfort the subject as if it’s holding on offering support, as the subject travels through the five stages of grief it will become weaker, modifying and morphing until it is no longer needed and it turns into dust and dies.

Initial Sketches

Grief in Art

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Whilst researching into the emotional side of grief I stumbled across Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the five stages of grief; Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. These steps are not used as rigid stages which the sufferer goes through but developed to be a model or a guide through the emotional phases, which can occur in any order.

In my opinion grief is the progression of spiralling stages which are very fragmented leading you in different directions, often looping back to early stages of grief and having the sufferer go through it again. Greif cocoons you but with luck eventually we open out of the cocoon of memories and fragments reaching accepting the loss.

Grief and Bereavement

I have decided to Personify Grief and bereavement for my character design, I believe it could prove to be very interesting visually because really grief is a personal emotional journey offering a fairly clean slate for ideas, rich with confusion, anger and possibly guilt. There are two ways to tackle this character, I could focus on the emotional side of grief and personify all the feelings which grief carries or alternatively I could design a character which has no direct personification of grief, instead I could design a character who injects emotions into its victims.

Grief: The normal process of reacting to a loss. The loss may be physical (such as a death), social (such as divorce), or occupational (such as a job). Emotional reactions of grief can include anger, guilt, anxiety, sadness, and despair. Physical reactions of grief can include sleeping problems, changes in appetite, physical problems, or illness.

The Mighty Quango

I believe I have just discovered a mind bender, better than the Ghost Busters, more imaginative than U2 (sorry Bono but I speak only truth), Henry Hoover and Dyson can swivel for I have invented The Mighty Quango. You may be thinking Quango? A Non-govermental organization performing governmental functions whos often in receipt of funding or other support from government, but surely this word already exists? My reply is this, don’t call me Shirley.

The Mighty Quango is the greatest toasty mankind has ever tasted. Take two pieces of brown bread; toast them to fit your own personal taste, next we have a nice thick spread of clover butter and wait for it to melt into the bread. Now for the piece de resistance, and who else can provide than the chairman himself; our very own chairman Lloyd Grossman has provided the world with many sauces over years but his Korma Curry sauce is the shepherd, guiding his bhaji sheep past the likes of the Balti and the vindaloo. I’m rambling, finally slice some brie on top and grill for exactly 10 seconds.

I feel rejuvenated; watching Belleville Rendezvous whilst eating a Mighty Quango, Let’s kick off the project.

The Battle

I must admit I am struggling to become passionate about this project at the so far, I need something to open my mind and chaperon my imagination into a new dimension.

Wait...I have an ingenious Concept; I must develop this concoction of ideas at once.

French Mafia Agents

These characters are very strange but incredibly stylised, again however following the fundamental shapes to portray a certain personality or image. The use of squares in a character gives an impression of strength, here Chomet as taken that concept to the ultimate extreme and created a character which is basically a square block of pure iron. What I like about this character is the way Chomet has managed to create a character with no personality at all, which is appropriate for the character because as one of the mafia boss’s henchmen, he is there to follow rules and act on only what he is told.

The Champion

Possibly inspired by Segar’s Popeye, the champ character is an incredible stereotypical impression of an over obsessed cyclist. Chomet has taken the fundamental rules of character design and applied his artistic licence on top, naturally a cyclist is thin, doesn’t need to have much upper body strength because all of the energy is centred on the leg muscles to push the pedals. With this in mind Chomet has given the champ massively over exaggerated leg muscles on top on these thin bones almost rendering the character to look deformed. The characters stance reflects that of an old man, tired and gloomy with dark and baggy sleepy eyes; it’s as if all of the life has been sucked out of his body and injected back into his legs.

Les Triplettes de Belleville

The animated Film “Les Triplettes de Belleville” Also known as “Belleville Rendez-Vous” has been one of the most popular in whole Cannes Festival, was nominated for two academy awards and won best animated picture film. Directed and written by Sylvain Chomet, Set in the 1930s the film focus on an Old Portuguese emigrant woman (Madame Souza) and her grandson who live together, for her grandson’s birthday she buys him a tricycle. Years later you find out that the grandson has perused his talent for cycling and has become successful winning many awards.

As the film progresses we follow Madame Souza and her grandson through his vigorous training schedule for the Tour de France, long cycling sessions up exaggerated hillsides while for his trainer Madame Sousa keeps the rhythm with constant whistling.

During the Tour de France the Grandson and two other cyclists are kidnapped by the French mafia, from this point on the film turns into a chase across sea to a fictional metropolis called Belleville where Madame Souza and her beloved dog Bruno stumble upon and team up with the Belleville Sisters who at in their prime where a world famous song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire.

When eventually finding the cyclists it turns out that the French mafia have been using them for a betting game, Madame Sousa and her team break the cyclists free, all hell breaks loose, and the chase is on by the mafia Godfather himself!

In terms of the narrative behind this film, you could say it’s a bit loose around the edges. Some might have to watch it more than once to fully understand the plot. I don’t see it this way, to me the visual aesthetic of the architecture; vehicles and characters accompany the narrative perfectly by engaging in a relationship filled with exaggeration and emotion. Let’s not forget that the whole film is shown via the characters expressions alone because there is no speech throughout apart from occasional clips shown on the television and music and song. Fairly brave for an animation in this day and age, and explains why it’s not well known amongst most. Stereotypically, if the film was produced to appeal to an American audience, it would be a crime.

The Design of the characters is exaggerated specifically to emphasize how the character is feeling emotionally and physically thus enabling the audience to not only understand the narrative effectively and to feel connected to the characters.