creatures

The Piano Creatures video

Posted by hil

I’m excited to present the video of The Piano Creatures that accompanies the creatures when they are on static display! At the moment they are in my show Glimpses of a Seabird Flying Blind at the Pinnacles Gallery, Townsville, until 29 April. The creatures exist somewhere between sculptures and puppets, so the video captures some of the moments when they move and come alive.

I had brilliant colleagues making the video, and it was a real pleasure working with them! I offer them all many thanks for their skill, patience and enthusiasm, and such a great outcome!

Puppeteer: barb barnett
Video filming and production: Chris Hahn
Music composed by Alex Raupach
Performed, recorded and produced by Joe O’Connor (piano)

Glimpses of a Seabird Flying Blind

Posted by hil

I’m really happy and excited that my first gallery exhibition, Glimpses of a Seabird Flying Blind is opening tomorrow, 23 March at the Pinnacles Gallery in Townsville, continuing through to 29 April! It represents almost a year of work, and a new direction for me. The work falls into several groups – The Piano Creatures, The Big Fish (Evangeline), the Shells and Cocoons, and the Secret Cabal of Elders, as well as a few other creatures in an imagined world:

On an imagined shoreline we see disruptions in the natural world. In the shallows are the ghosts of former shells, fragile and colonized or fossilized by synthetic substances. The Piano Creatures, evolved from the driftwood mechanisms of discarded instruments, pick their way across the sands carrying the promise of music and hope. In the deepest ocean a sightless blob fish sucks for sustenance and in the limitless sky the hollow-boned birds continue their daily feat of survival in newly changing times.

The patterns of disruption follow the age-old evolutionary law: diversify, select, adapt. The process is dynamic, relentless, wonderful and dispassionate; and acutely responsive to the footprint of humanity.

Using her experience in making puppets and sculptural forms, and interests in new materials and technologies, Hilary Talbot has created some of the inhabitants of this imagined future as a meditation on the tensions and challenges faced by society now.

I’d love you to drop in and see it if you happen to be up Townsville way in the next five weeks!

A huge thank you to my family, friends and colleagues for all their support, encouragement and enthusiasm and skills in helping me get this up, in particular to Anna Raupach, Tim Raupach, Alex Raupach, Wendy Quinn, Lelde Vitols, Lisa Styles, Imogen Keen, Robyn Campbell, Elizabeth Paterson, Bev Hogg, barb barnett, Chris Hahn, Steve Crossley, Caroline Stacey, Joe O’Connor, and the Pinnacles Gallery team.

Piano Creature No.3. Piano mechanisms, balsa wood, paper mache; 55cm x 56cm x 60cm; 2010

Piano Creature No.6. Piano mechanisms, buckram, paper, cardboard; 50cm x 50cm x 47cm; 2010

The Big Fish (Evangeline) Head detail.  Photograph by Anna Madeleine 2018

The Burden of Stuff No.1. Plaster, foam sheet, acrylic paint, fabric, styrene, recycled wire frame. 68cm x 40cm x 30cm. 2010

Cocoon No.2, Milk bottle plastic; 120cm x 43cm x 32cm; 2016. Photograph by Lisa Styles

Whelk Shell (Fragility). Tissue paper, plaster 90cm x 50cm x 30cm.  2008

Cowry (Paper Thin). Tissue paper, foil, masking tape; 75cm x 45cm x 30cm. 2017

Turtle Shell Sheild (False Promises), PLA plastic filament, wish stones; 60cm x 58cm x 12cm.  2017

Turtle Shell (Moon and Constellations), PLA plastic filament, tissue paper, foil, masking tape; 57cm x 58cm x 12cm. 2017

Wonders of the Deep. PLA plastic filament, recycled sushi fish bottles, fishing line 100cm x 50cm x 45cm. 2017

The Secret Cabal of Elders. Hand puppets. Balsa wood, tissue paper mache, fur fabric, reclaimed decorations. 2017

The Rainbow Serpent puppet for Biami

Posted by hil

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(Duncan Smith, artistic director of the Wiradjuri Echos, with Biami‘s Rainbow Serpent. Photo credit: Angie To)

I  recorded some of the build for Biami, the creation story of the Wiradjuri people, this time last year, (see previous posts) but didn’t get to blog about the Rainbow Serpent until now.

The serpent was about 4 metres long, and operated with rods by four to five people. After worrying about how I could make it twist and turn enough to be truly serpentine if it was designed to have solid body, I had what I think of my ‘warhorse’ moment of inspiration (!), and decided to make it impressionistic, with a skeleton outline instead. So it was made with coiled flexible foam backing rod, and  two midline connecting lines of the same material.

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Then I wrapped coloured cloth around the outlines. The design was effective and light, and enabled the serpent to snake and dive sinuously over the audience, carving out the Australian landscape according to the creation story.

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And now a kangaroo mask

Posted by hil

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Today I’ve been making a kangaroo mask. This is for the Biami production I blogged about yesterday. I decided to use paper mâché even though it’s a little time consuming. For something fairly small like this it’s fine, and I am pretty quick. I like doing paper mâché very much and find it meditative. I’m not sure on the final finish yet – fur or felt?

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Goanna puppet

Posted by hil

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I’ve been making some puppets for Biami, the creation story of the Wiradjuri people, by Duncan Smith and Maitland Schnaars, which will be performed  for the Kids, Creatures and 100 Harlequins – Centenary Children’s Week Celebration on 25 & 26 October in Glebe Park. (It’s part of the Centenary of Canberra project.)  Today I finished the goanna!

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The Rhyme of the Ancient Merino

Posted by hil

It’s great to see the complete realisation of Dave Jones’s The Rhyme of the Ancient Merino.

At sail on a sea of wheat, the Ancient Merino and his aging theatre troupe struggle to eke out an existence in a hostile environment. When a the threat of modern technology looms they must adapt or fade into obscurity.

The animation is an allegory for the story of ‘the 50 year history of the Arapiles Community Theatre, and the recent influx of new arrivals and the changes that has brought about’ in the small regional town of Natimuk, Victoria. Traditionally a service hub for the surrounding farming country, Natimuk is also the closest town to Mount Arapiles, a mecca for rock climbers, so it is an interesting mix of farming people, climbers and an arts community. In October it will again be the centre for the Nati Frinj.

I love the puppets in this; they’re life size and  made from bits of old farm machinery. And I like the little details like the snails.

Erth’s The Dream of the Thylacine

Posted by hil

This is a great behind-the-scenes video for Erth‘s The Dream of the Thylacine which will run at Carriageworks in Sydney 25 Sept to 5 October. In particular it shows super talented puppet maker Bryony Anderson talking in some detail about how she thought about the project, and her process in building the thylacine puppet, down to how and why she came to make the fur from potato sacks!

Also take a look at this amazing spider made by Bryony and friends, using only stuff from the dump.

Mushrooms and monsters

Posted by hil

Last April I made these four muppet characters for a student film project. I never saw the resulting video, so I can’t say how it went! The Mushroom King technically isn’t really a muppet; instead he was made to dangle on a string, and his mouth is moved remotely using a bike cable.

I’m trying out the WordPress gallery here. It annoys me that you cant’t see the tentacle monster’s one eye in the thumbnail, but once you click on the thumbnails the gallery viewer itself is quite cool. Time will tell if I persist with using the galleries!

Mechanical cardboard creatures

Posted by hil

Lucas Ainsworth & Alyssa Hamel have a Kickstarter appeal going for these cool mechanical creatures made in kit form out of cardboard. The animal moves either with a manual winding mechanism, or by itself if you build in an additional the gear kit.

(via @dugnorth)