Clayography in Motion: Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail

The interactive animation section of the Museum’s core exhibition Behind the Screen will be reimagined with a special focus on stop-motion-animation director Adam Elliot’s new film Memoir of a Snail. In all his films, Elliot uses clay puppets to explore themes inspired by his own life, in an approach that he calls “Clayography.” Visitors are invited to use 2D characters and sets from the film to create their own stop-motion animations. Hand-crafted puppets and video clips from Memoir of a Snail will also be on view. 

Painstakingly hand-animated in a process that took more than eight years, Memoir of a Snail follows the lonely life of Grace Pudel, voiced by Sarah Snook, from birth through adulthood. Despite the serious and often dark subject matter, the story combines pathos with humor. The film’s animators conveyed a broad spectrum of human emotion by making tiny adjustments to the puppets’ facial expressions, building scenes frame by frame.

This exhibition is presented with support from IFC Films.