How does Tim Burton use Mixed Media to Portray Death and the Strange?
In this essay I will examine the work of Tim Burton through a close reading of the book Tim Burton the Iconic Filmmaker and His Work by Nathan Ian as well as the detailed essay ‘Abject Incorporated,’by Maggie Henfield, highlighting Burtons’ effective use of grotesque materials in a beautiful portrayal. Further, by looking mainly at his use of clay and other models I will explore how Burton expresses both the world of the dead as well as his enthusiastic adoration of strange and outcast characters within our society. Following this I delve into the materiality of his colour palettes to juxtapose the worlds of the living and the dead, before finally tackling his abject model creations and their ability to bridge the traditional divide between death and humor. From his sculptures or outrageous models which are now exhibited in galleries across the world today, to his change in music and materiality of colour palette in his films, Burton uses materials to address death, or more precisely his humorous attitude towards it. Burton communicates a secular view of death, that the world of the dead is far more exciting and humorous than that of the living.
Throughout this essay I will be looking at the wide range of materials Burton deploys in his clay models, wire sculptures, 3D creations and unconventional puppets. Even when his mediums change, his attitude towards life, death and the uncanny does not: he is always applying a sensitive touch to his creations, making each identifiable with himself and his audience alike. The artist’s uniquely sensitive approach to storytelling makes sensitive topics digestible through outlandish humour. At the core of his unique focus on death versus life--and the outcast versus the acceptable-- are the materials themselves, which allow Burton to present what would otherwise be an abrasive truth of his contemporary view of life after death.
Working with humanitarian themes and universally sensitive topics, Burton does not lose his sensitivity when making his models using clay, even to this day, and stop-motion animation. Despite the advancement of animation which now allows for buttons to control models, Burton still insists on not ‘smothering the human touch’. (Ian, 2016, p88) . As well as physical models, Burton relies heavily on ‘plastic theatre,’ i.e. the materiality of music, lighting and colour palette. The boneyard of abandoned landscapes in cities such as Las Vegas are inspired by old Hollywood signs, and express his strong colour palette in many of his movies.
Burton's grotesque models and vagabond characters cut to the core of abject art, highlighting what’s discouraged, repulsive and downright weird. More specifically the human body’s grotesque functions and in reference to Burton in particular, the death and decay of it. Burton's model characters, portrays an ‘aesthetic operation designed to separate those who are or should be from those who are not or should never be,’( Sammond,2020, p27). From the puppetry outfit of Edward Scissorhands to the ghostly grey clay complexion of Victor in The Corpse Bride, Burton uses his materials to exaggerate these frightful characters while also bringing attention to their lives that most run and hide from. Through the use of distinct materials to create outcasts, such characters become paradoxically charming.
Clay in particular is a top favorite of Burton's material. “There’s just something visceral about moving a puppet frame by frame,” Burton said. “There’s a magical quality about it. Maybe you can get smoother animation with computers, but there’s a dimension and emotional quality to this kind of animation that fits these characters and this story.” (The Associated Press, 2005) Although the figures themselves are made and moved by Mackinnion and Saunders, Burton created, designed and was the sole artist of the overall image and art behind each character. Out of 30 clay puppets, Emil the Butler is one of the supporting minor characters throughout the film. Mainly made of clay as well as some polystyrene, Emil the Butler was made in 2005, with the measurements of 38.1 x 10.16 x 10.16. Although he is not currently on view, he is just as easily studiable on the screen with grey hues, an exaggerated upwards pointing nose, revealing overwhelmingly large nostrils. His wispy waistcoat is covering the only hint of colour: a tan butler's uniform. Our eyes then travel down to an iconic pair of ‘Burtonesque’ (a new description that is used universally today, thanks to Burton's iconic contemporary art style) striped trousers. As well as this ancillary character Burton involves us in his wide range of characters’ personalities, encouraging us to not exclude these fascinating individuals from our own lives. The effects of growing up as a ‘dark gothic child’ (Romano, 2019) in sunny ‘happy’ California made him relatable to the characters he would later create. “When I was growing up in Burbank, the environment was very middle-class suburban, and I felt like an alien.” (Bernstein, Racheal, 2011,p2 )His personal relationship with his models and clay figures extend further than his wanting them to have a ‘human touch’; they are a reflection of his life, which makes the connection between his clay figures and himself even more intimate.
Burton’s interest in marginalised outsiders reflects Marxism's theory of reification, originally inspired by Georg Lukacs essay “Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat” (Titus,2013,p3.1). Burton turns loneliness and exclusion from society (the idea) into relatable character puppets (a thing). The amalgamation of these two factors becomes a ‘real thing’, but more importantly sets out social relations because “the concept of reification is used by Marx to describe a form of social consciousness in which human relations come to be identified with the physical properties of things” (Burris,1988, p22). Thus the relation of the outcast to the physical objects, the puppets that Burton creates, makes real the ‘accidental’ creations, or evolutionary processes of birthing the strange. Societies embedded structural points of view - what is “normal” and “perfect” - draw attention to those who do not fit that mold, desiring to hide them away. So the result of this normalising societal structure, which Burton is trying to break out of, creates a repeated ideology: a sort of “natural selection” of inevitable outcasts. Therefore Burton creates a puppet as a thing in and of itself but also as a projection of this myth within society.
Beyond physical materiality, Burton uses plastic theatre (“the use of props, noises and stage directions to convey a blatant parallel with the characters state of mind” (Zheng,2017) to characterize his models. In particular, his strong use of colour with contrasting colour palettes, most evident in his film Corpse Bride, which employs a low colour saturation in the world above, feathered with purple undertones, creating a depressing portrayal of the world of the living. In contrast, there is also Burton’s painterly use of bright colours, influenced by Mexico’s 'Dia de Muertos’ or Day of the Dead, in a celebratory world of death come to life. Burton once even had a shrine of skeletons from such celebrations displayed within his home, casually commenting that ‘they’d always have nice scenes with them in clothes’ (Ian, 2016, p86). Burton’s humorous attitude towards death manifests in his use of luminous greens and purples as lighting, while the objects around the characters have a consistently warm hue. Cleary he desires to emphasise the juxtaposition of the two atmospheres: the living and the dead. For this Burton uses purple in both worlds, but with completely different tones and vibrancy representing the stark and unexpectedly reversed contrast of happiness between the too.
Taking heed of Ferdinand de Saussure’s “Course in General Linguistics,” Burton utilizes the twofold elements of the ‘sign’ being the signifier and the signified. He clearly focuses on the signified in his use of colours, trying to evoke and bring across distinct emotions to the audience. His strong repetition of specific colours leads to an evident representation of blue and purple as a sign for the depressing landscape of the living. This is directly opposed by neon bright colours, which signify the happy land of the dead. The semiotics of these colours create his own language; the repetition of this language evolves distinct feelings and metaphors of meaning. Colour, for Burton, is the primary ‘signifier’ throughout his films, returning to them time and time again.
The luminosity of colour in the ‘Corpse Bride’ scenes can also be seen in Burton’s Beetlejuice, which seems to take inspiration from his love for old Hollywood signs, and which led to his exhibition at the Las Vegas Neon Museum. On exhibition is one of Burton's largest structural pieces of a disassembled Las Vegas sign, made from dusted light bulbs to emphasise his love for old-fashioned signs that have since been taken down, fittingly titled ‘Lost Vegas’. Burton brings back the old school flare of Las Vegas captured by this sculpture, standing at an impressive 40 feet tall. It is one of his main pieces at this gallery of bright light. The structure has a silhouette similar to that of the domes of the Taj Mahal, with a crescent shaped moon high over a pattern of seven asymmetrically floating stars. Between the moon and the stars is an awkward arrangement of red neon letters forming the sculpture’s title. Burton's strong connection for these structures and his consistent neon colour choices follow with a neon green greeting for recently deceased Adam and Barbara (Beetlejuice). It’s ironic that Burton uses green which can be related to nature and the circle of life. This seamlessly fits the situation of the newly departed or those embarking on a new or altered existence. However, all of these works inspired by his passion for Las Vegas style signage tend to use, almost intrusively, a traditional colour that is made almost obnoxious in its demand for our attention. Again, the clashing realities of life are juxtaposed with a wicked sense of humour.
A wicked humour is most evident in Beetlejuice, where Burton continuously blurs the lines between his models and reality. “They are in a sense a step backwards. They're crude and funky, and also very personal,” explains Burton (Ian, 2016, p37). From a head-within-a-head sandworm to a man with a shrunken head, Burton's craziest concepts create the dynamic of a mocking attitude towards death and another possibility of the afterlife. Burton, who, as a child, lived across the road from a graveyard where many of his family were buried, and used it as a playground, arguably created a more playful myth or understanding of death, in place of more conventional religious approaches. By taking a step backwards with his models, Burton once again gives his signature sensitive touch to his figurines. Abject aesthetic structure approaches abject as a vital critical category for understanding the fraught relationship between pleasure and violence. Burton’s models in Beetlejuice, such as the sandworm or the disturbed characters of the afterlife, are built in appearance to represent the circumstances of their death. Where strong influences of German Expressionism are prevalent in his gradation of highly saturated to unsaturated backgrounds and landscapes.The subject matter of German Expressionism was focused on bringing light to the atrocities of war and the suffering that people experienced. Although you can't compare pain, it shows the thought process and sensitivity behind these vulnerable characters who are portrayed through the materiality of how Burton presents these scenes. For example, the model of the castle in Edward Scissorhands is a dark grey, with a repetition of slanted walls and harsh sharp lines that slope and are distorted. It is the wonky uneven staircase running through the castle, a stark signature of German Expressionism, that presents so perfectly the uncomfortable conflict within his lonesome troubled life. Those discombobulated sharp edges and rotund shadows, cascading against the walls, construct atmosphere and enhance fear itself.
We take in bright colours as happy and exciting, and dull purple or black as depressing. The materiality of colours in Corpse Bride highlights his reversal of perspective, with comical views of the afterlife, which he seems to favour exclusively. His sensitivity when directing model building in clay, highlights the compassion and his identification with outcast characters, devoting the extra care and time he puts towards them by not falling prey to the lure of computer animation, but rather sticking to what is most personable and ‘realistic’ for him. Through the use of specific materials, his adoration for “monsters,” or people on the fringes of societal norms, shapes how we, too, in varied worldwide societies, can view them for their own unique beauty. His harsh shapes, when creating models, and within his sketches, communicate ideas of death and abject morbidness, drawing attention to what many people are terrified of, and even repulsed by. Burton is comfortable when creating a strong counter-cultural aesthetic displaying his happily grotesque fascination with death and Gothic vibes. Furthermore, he employs a singular use of colour to make light of, and enhance, the most exaggerated, outlandish, often comical, but always grandiose visuals based in what others would deem tragedy.
Ultimately Burton is not simply a filmmaker but an artist in his own right with a wide use of different materials to represent strong and repetitively important themes. From adoring the downtrodden and abandoned heroines in his stories, to his passion for Americana, he highlights the importance of those in our own personal realities. He offers a strange comfort to those who fear death, as he portrays a life affirming enthusiasm for and passionate embracing of the afterlife. Always approaching materials to imbue the utmost humanity that you can give to inanimate objects, one cannot walk away without a paradigm shift regarding death as a beautiful potential for new life.
Figure 1: Emil the Butler (2005)
Clay and Foam, 38.1 x 10.16 x 10.16
National Museum of American History
Figure 2: Lost Vegas (2019)
Metal, Light bulbs, 1219.2cm
Neon Museum
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