Pluto and the Vessel
Pluto and the Vessel by Harrison Browning
Pluto and the Vessel is a stop-motion short, created using a combination of clay, object, and puppet animation. The work exists simultaneously as both homage to early science fiction horror tropes and as a personal contemplation on the impossible differentiation between containers and their contents. The narrative itself is a simple, singular, and linear series of moments. It is a minuscule and incomplete portrait of a significant moment in an insignificant life.
A bald, bearded man, carrying only a tank on his back and a lantern in his hand, progresses from one space to another in order to complete some mundane, yet dubious task. The actions and spaces are minimal, and they serve to highlight specific changes in mood and atmosphere. More importantly though, these subtle, naïve, and often unassuming gestures serve to question who, or what, or where is “the vessel” at any given moment. The film treats all its parts- body, space, and object, as interchangeable and porous in their interactions; nothing is a vessel, everything is a vessel.
