Challenge: Puppetry

Clive Hicks-Jenkin's puppets for the 2013 performance of The Mare's Tale by Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra

Clive Hicks-Jenkin's puppets for the 2013 performance of The Mare's Tale by Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra

Clive Hicks-Jenkin's Expressionist Stair-Set for the 2013 performance of The Mare's Tale by Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra

Inspired by the astonishing emotional complexity of the interactions between Clive's puppets, his screen animations of 2D maquettes, and human actors and musicians in the 2013 performance of The Mare's Tale by the Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra, there has been an outpouring of interest in all things puppetry moving around the blogosphere. The fantastic result is a new challenge over at Clive's blog, calling all available hands to get building.

Logo created by Peter Slight, curator of the Puppet Challenge. Click for Link.

In preparation for the challenge, to help with ideas and to underline the fact that there are many, very different styles and materials available to the new puppeteer, Clive has been posting (and will continue to do so) about great puppets both ancient and modern-- his site has become a veritable museum of delightful discoveries...

"The Chinese shadow-puppet tradition is said to date from the reign of the Emperor Wu in the Han Dynasty. When his favourite concubine died, he ordered his court officials to bring her back to life. An articulated ‘puppet’ in her likeness was made of donkey-skin, and the concubine was conjured for the Emperor by means of moving lamps projecting her puppet-shadow onto a screen." --Clive

"In the Javanese shadow-puppet tradition of Wayang Kulit, the word for the shadow-screen is Kelir, and just as the puppet-master is obscured from the audience by this fragile veil, it’s believed that the ‘mover of the world’, the Jagatkarana, is hidden from mortal sight by the screen that separates the planes of existence."--Clive

He tells us that though they would only ever perform as shadows on a screen, great attention was given to the colors and decorations that were considered a gift of thanks and reverence to the shadow puppet itself:

Such shadow puppets would be a logical next step for those of us who took to the lessons on maquette- building from Clive here, and took part in the previous challenge and exhibition here. (Don't miss parts II and III, following that.)

Mare Maquette created by Clive Hicks-Jenkins for On-Screen Animations during the Mare's Tale performance this year.

But, for a more three-dimensional approach, there is also the possibility of a glove puppet, like Clive's Ogre:

Ogre Glove Puppet by Clive Hicks-Jenkins

or like this Mr. Punch, by Julian Crouch:

Julian Crouch and his Mr. Punch

Then there are metal puppets, exemplified by the Theatre le Licorne's Spartacus set and crew:

Theatre le Licorne's Spartacus

Theatre le Licorne's Spartacus

Theatre le Licorne's Spartacus

And then there is always, for the bravest among us, the inspiration offered by the puppets (and their puppeteers) of 69˚S, created by Erik Sanko and Jessica Grindstaff of Phantom Limb:

As with all projects on Clive's site, this one introduces you to all kinds of inspiration, both from him and from the comments boxes below his posts, where I discovered a new artist, Jill Desborough, also a puppeteer, among other things...

Mrs. Thackery, by Jill Desborough

Mrs. Pincher, by Jill Desborough

The Crow by Jill Desborough

It caught my eye that she also had created an etching and aquatint Anatomical Alphabet, which was another challenge put together on Clive's site here.

A is for Articulated, by Jill Desborough

C is for Codpiece by Jill Desborough

I love the way she draws out the letter in unexpected details...

O is for Ornamented by Jill Desborough

E is for Eyes by Jill Desborough

And she also has this lovely Trojan Horse Statue:

Into the City by Jill Desborough

Into the City by Jill Desborough

As contributors sign up for the challenge, I am discovering a slew of new artists...

There's Rachel Larkins, who creates lovely automata:

Automaton by Rachel Larkins. The mirror shows the back side of the doll.

Design sheet and Automaton by Rachel Larkins

...here in action:

There are the strange and miraculous creations of Hussam Elsherif:

by Hussam Elsherif

by Hussam Elsherif

by Hussam Elsherif

And there are the illuminations of Stuart Kolakovic:

Detail from the Death of King Arthur, by Stuart Kolakovic

Wenceslas, by Stuart Kolakovic 

Wenceslas, by Stuart Kolakovic

....and there are many other wondrous artists I have met before there--go and see, and take up the challenge!!

Queens of Fate

Some of my paintings:




Three of the paintings in the video belong to a series on the Three Fates:


Three Fates Dreaming the World Under the Watchful Eye of the Baku

From Blogger Pictures

There is an old Hindu idea that the world is a dream, and each dreamer dreams all the other dreamers, which are all aspects of him/herself. The dreamer is then the creator of the universe and also an actor in it-- all the actors in it, in fact. Here, the dreamer takes the role of the Three Fates from Greek mythology, as they weave the world, simultaneously weaving each other. In the beginning, as always, there is chaos, the mushy sky, formless. In the beginning, the dreamer is already there, taking form from spirit and energy left over from the last dream (is this karma?). One Fate feeds the spool from her hair, and the thread gives form to the chaos of the sky, shaping another Fate, who is already escaping her cloth, one arm reaching out into the forming universe, offering her Gift: nourishment for the birds. The third Fate, who pulls the excess thread in from the second Fate's cloth, her body performing the alchemy that changes air to water, feeds the world fish, which become the birds the second Fate feeds.



The Fates Reconsider





Here the Three Fates have wandered out from beneath the Baku's protective gaze. And as a result they dreamed up war, hwich is the tapestry to the upper right. The tapestry is a combination of pieces of Leonardo da Vinci's Battle of Anghiari and the sketches for Picasso's Guernica, and at the moment, having realized their mistake, they are unraveling that tapestry, trying to unsnarl it and preserve the thread for a new tapestry. The Fate at the far right is only trying to untangle her hair from it as her form disintegrates into feathers which then take flight as new birds (think Jungian transcendence), while the middle Fate is trying to replant her hair from the strands she rescues as her form returns to water. The water cascades down the slight rise and begins creeping up the far left Fate's leg as a tattoo, which extends to include the horse and rider from the tapestry, this time re-envisioned as a performing horse and rider, the sword of the previous rider now no more than the silver feather in the performer's headband, and the ram (equivalent in some mythologies to the phoenix, a symbol of rebirth) from his breastplate now a puppet-mask, hanging on her right shoulder from tattooed strands of hair. As the strands develop from tattoo to real hair, which she reels onto the new spool, the rest of the tattoo also begins to come to life, a real ram's mask hanging from her hair, and a child hanging from it in creative play, and other new creatures come into being, such as the flying cat (why not?).


Revolution: The Tapestry Comes to Life






The child is now a more fully developed marionette; her maker's mask falls away to reveal her spirit mask as she grabs one of the ropes directing her in order to take control of her own movements. The horse has evolved into its own sort of magical beast, which stops short at the observing cat (the flying kitten, now well-satisfied), allowing its partner to go on flying of her own accord. and the threads of the background smoke and mist as they begin to form the shapes of the new world.