The dark side of imagination

A chilly afternoon in this city. Seven degrees only. I went with Judy to Tim Burton's exhibition at ACMI, Federation Square. We have to pass a long queue to be able to observe an enormous number of pictures, sketches, statues, moving images, cartoons, costumes, replicas, etcetera.

I realized, time and time again, that most of the genius are introverts. They live, to some exent, in their own realities. They imagine things, sometimes, or most of times, different, almost deviant, from others' thoughts and imagination. It's clearly obvious from the life of Tim Burton too. His imagination has particular characters. They'r dark, they're gothic, sort of creepy and sadistic. Baby pinched with nails, corpse brides, sound monsters, Joker, Mad Hatter and everything else that are beyond 'normal people' imagination I suppose. And he sold them well. The company did.

I also realize that people do enjoy darkness, deep down under their unconsciousness. I, for instance, liked to play on the cemetery long time ago. Looking at the 'valley of the death' when the sun set raised a feeling of helplessness as a human being. Reminded me of the end of our profane being in this world. 'Cause all men die, -as James Blunt sadly sang.

I personally don't really like these gothic, creepy stuff. But I was curious to find out how's the creative process was conducted actually. From sketching on the piece of paper up to the moving image production. How the creative process took place in the beginning. And how it touched people emotionally. Exploring their own darkness side of self. A message of bitterness and mockery I smelled from Mr. Burton's work. By leaving all the 'normalities' and sentimental feelings behind, he twisted around with realities. 'Till we, the audience, see the light again, 'till the screen rolls down, and we wake up, and realising that they're just creatures from someone else's imagination. That they're just unreal.


Note: To check his works, his official website is: http://www.timburton.com. The picture in this post was taken from the flyer.