Biography

Emma Calder

Collage, wire models, computer-generated imagery, watercolours, spontaneous paintings created directly under the camera, Emma Calder is comfortable working in any medium you care to mention and a few more besides. If a piece of work demands a unique and original look, she will invent it. She has worked as a Animation Director, Artist and Graphic Designer. Most recently she has written, designed and illustrated books, for both adults and children.

Emma studied Graphic Design at the London College of Printing and The Royal College of Art, which is where she began to experiment with animation. Ilkla Moor baht at, her first film was shown in the New Contemporaries Exhibition at the ICA in 1982.

Her second film, Madame Potatoe, became a cult of the early 80’s and as well as being featured in the national press it was shown at the Tate Gallery as part of an animation show in 1983. A still from the film now resides in the Victorian and Albert Museum as an example of the art of Potato Print Animation. The film was first screened on Channel Four in the Early 90’s.

Her talents have been widely recognised and in 1983 she animated 1984 (Music for Modern Americans), produced by Eduardo Paolozzi and the Royal Collage of Art.

In 1986 she made Springfield, a witty and offbeat, probing of loss and alienation featuring a central character who is half woman, half vacuum cleaner. This film was screened on Channel Four and is available on video and for cine hire, from the British Film Institute; it was also featured in a Channel Four documentary on woman’s animation along side the director..

She also directed and animated various award winning pop videos in the eighties including Shame by the Eurhythmics (director ofanimation) and Close to the Edit by The Art of Noise (director of sequence).

In 1989 she set up Pearly Oyster Productions with fellow animator Ged Haney, the pair co-directing the curious puppet animation children’s film The Drummer.

Her film The Queen’s Monastery 1998, was the first animated film to be funded by the National Lottery. It received many prizes including a Silver Hugo at Chicago, second prize at the Dresden Festival, best professional film at Bradford International Film Festival and special jury prize at Zagreb. The film was successfully distributed in cinemas throughout the UK and in over fifty cinemas in North America and is now available on DVD.

She has recently completed designing the animation sequences for a Channel Four documentary The Great British Black invasion.

Her first children's book Miss Louise goes to Paris illustrated by Emma Calder written by Carolyn Hink was published by Quercus Books 2008.

In 2005 to present she made a series of handmade sticker books which have sold in various outlets in London, including Tate Modern Shop and Other Criteria. As a continuation of this work she created Emma Calder's Moody Day Sticker Book for Thames and Hudson, which was published 8th March 2010.

Paper Angels a children's activity and story book was published 4th October by Bloomsbury.

Emma is currently developing and writing several new books and films.