Making weird go viral with Hi Stranger creator Kirsten Lepore
0Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/6/20995543/hi-stranger-creator-kirsten-lepore-animation-weird-viral
Reported today in The Verge.
Making weird go viral with Hi Stranger creator Kirsten Lepore
Every week, The Verge's designers, photographers, and illustrators gather to share the work of artists who inspire us. Now we're turning our Art Club into an interview series in which we catch up with the artists and designers we admire and find out what drives them.
About three years ago, a naked, hairless humanoid told us that it was okay to look at its butt. The internet obliged. The mesmerizing short animation Hi Stranger quickly amassed millions of views and was even featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The film's soothing message that "everything was going to be okay" was a perfect antidote to the stress many were feeling in early 2017.
The film came from the mind of artist Kirsten Lepore, a stop-motion animator who has a knack for tapping into the psyche of the moment. Her animations are tender, captivating, and reassuring and seem to appear when things are looking particularly bleak. Her latest short film Natural History Museum presents a hopeful look into the distant future, a future in which we evolve beyond our narrow viewpoints and biological limitations.
I spoke with Kirsten about her inspirations, character designs, and how things have changed for her since Hi Stranger.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I want to start by talking about your film Natural History Museum. Can you share how this project came to be?
Natural History Museum was a short commissioned by Belvedere Vodka and Janelle Monáe. Three other filmmakers and myself were invited to create a film based on the theme of "A Beautiful Future." I really wanted to get weird with it, so I did.
Other than perhaps a love of buffalo wings, what inspired the story?
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