This beautiful little wing mechanism making a playful kinetic ring is made by Dukno Yoon, a jeweller and metalsmith. There are other equally lovely ones operated by various small hand and wrist movements in his gallery. (via Colossal)
puppets
War Horse
After hearing Adrian Kohler talking about Handspring Puppet Company‘s War Horse at UNIMA 2008 in Perth, I made a special point of seeing it in London later that year when I was travelling. It was remarkable and wonderful.
Since then War Horse has been much celebrated, and has played to increasing audiences, moving from the National Theatre to the West End, and then to Broadway. Most recently it has been staged in Toronto, and, excitingly, it will be in Melbourne’s Arts Centre in December this year.
I think the TED talk above is the best demonstration of the puppets I’ve seen outside the theatre. Despite their impressionistic construction with movement, breath and emotional gestures they become breathtakingly alive. (Eric Hart linked to this great infographic by Trish McAlaster on how the puppets work.)
The horse puppets get most of the interest, which is natural, but there’s also a lovely puppet goose, and an enormous tank that comes on stage, rolling up over a barricade, and rearing over the audience. I really don’t know how they did that! And I also enjoyed the music and loved the minimalist set, essentially a suggested torn piece of paper above the back of the stage, on which simple animations were projected from time to time.
The attitude towards war in the play is unusual, slipping past taking sides, who is in the right or wrong and strategy, and emphasising rather how the horses’ fates are completely subject to the capricious needs and circumstances of humans.
By now War Horse has been made into the inevitable Spielberg movie, which I somehow don’t feel any particular need to see. (For fun take a look at Lisa Hanawalt’s illustrated review). I’m inclined to think that I would agree with Emily Landau’s article Why war Horse’s puppets win by flaunting their artificiality. Apparently an animatronic horse was used for a few seconds for humane reasons in one scene in the movie. I caught a glimpse of this on YouTube a few weeks ago but the video has since been withdrawn.
Lastly, I love the illustration of the Handspring puppets by Byron Eggenschwiler accompanying Landau’s article.
Latest Australian Puppeteer Mag is out
I received my copy of the latest Australian Puppeteer Magazine a couple of days ago. It’s a good looking production at the moment under the new editorship of Robert Reid. In this edition there are features on Terrapin Theatre Company‘s and Sydney Puppet Theatre‘s history and plans, and Tim Denton‘s reflections on his Bread and Puppet experience two years on. Also, interviews with Duda Paiva, Heath McIvor, and Richard Hart (the last being about the upcoming Tarrengower Puppetfest, a dialogue via Kay Yasugi about marionette puppetry in the classroom, and various reviews.
The magazine is available twice a year to members of UNIMA Australia. Don’t forget that you can also get news of the puppetry arts in Australia via the free monthly Oz Puppetry Email Newsletter.
Testing an elephant trunk
The elephants in yesterday’s post reminded me of this big elephant trunk I made for The Flying Fruit Fly production, The Promise, in 2008. It was meant to wave out from behind some set element, implying the whole elephant was just behind. The mechanism was based on a tentacle mechanism I had worked out previously, but was more complicated because the control lines were too long for the see-saw lever and instead required spools to wind the lines onto alternately to take up the slack. In turn there was a lot of tension exerted on the spools, and the trunk weight added to that problem. So, not a perfect solution, but an interesting make.
I also thought this was nifty – wrinkly elephant skin made by painting latex on stretched lycra! This idea was suggested to me by Tim Denton, from AboutFace Productions, who did the major build for the show, and it worked brilliantly.
Amit Drori’s miniature mechanical elephants
I’ve been entranced by Royal de Luxe‘s and La Machine‘s huge mechanical elephants, but this evening I came across Israeli Amit Drori‘s enchanting small mechanical elephants, made for his show Savanna. The elephants are computerised robots with complex mechanisms and live motion control. As well as the birds and turtle in this video, in another is a beautiful buck.
New-ish La Machine creatures in Nantes
Since going to La Machine in Nantes in 2008 I like to see what new sea creatures are being made in the workshop there. This TV news video shows the sea monster, a shell, a nautilus, a school of flying fish, another fish ship and a new kind of fish in action. I’m not sure where this amazing fish and turtle fit in , but they are cool!
Previously: Riding the giant elephant
Hutch
The show I would be most curious to see at the Tarrengower Puppetfest in March (sadly I’m not going) is Hutch by Rachael Wenona Guy, which will take place in a disused gold mining tunnel known as Carman’s Tunnel. In a recent post, Rachael describes it as ‘a passion play involving a Mother, a giant rabbit and the rituals of nurturing an infant’ with an insatiable appetite. It looks creepy, and I’m sure that side of it will be enhanced by being seen in a claustrophobic shadowy ‘warren’.
Screaming Object (Objeto Gritante)
This is a sample of DudaPaiva Company’s production Screaming Object, ‘an absolutely unusual work of abstract dance and puppetry’ by Maurício Oliveira and Duda Paiva. I find it mesmerising, disturbing, and rather wonderful.
Following up on Highly Strung
A few months ago I posted about the giant aerial puppet, Phoebe Sparkles, made by David Jones and friends for the show Highly Strung, which was performed from silos at the Nati Frinj (Natimuk Fringe Festival). Dave has followed up with this great video of sequences edited together from rehearsals and the performance. The animations really add another dimension, and as he comments, it’s amazing to see the puppeteers in action.
