Snuff Puppets

Posted by hil

bheads

Here’s another election campaign protest involving large puppetry: Snuff Puppets took the form of one of their large Skull characters holding a jumbo jet to confront Howard and accuse him of creating terrorism.

The Skull originated as a character in the highly acclaimed Snuff Puppets production ‘Scarey’, ‘the story of a travelling troupe of giant puppets, their technical crew of skeletons and a group of exploited and neurotic humans who are a novelty act in the show’… which ‘ examines the fragility of human existence when the customary relationship between puppet and puppeteer is reversed.’

Snuff Puppets was established in the early 1990’s, having developed out of Splinters Inc, a company that produced large-scale outdoor visual works in Canberra in the late 80’s. Their reputation is for challenging, often grotesque, highly unusual and inventive works on a large scale. They also run Peoples Puppets Projects where they workshop with specific groups or communities to enable the making of ‘glorious puppet spectacles that express the joys, concerns and spirit of unique communities’.

Their web site is up-to-date and has lots of inspiring images of their puppets and productions for those of us unfortunately too far away to see their shows. Snuff Puppets and Polyglot Puppets both recently received some funding from the Melbourne City Council. Snuff Puppets will use theirs ‘to create an outdoor work for Reconciliation Week at Birrarung Marr in May 2005. It will be a collaborative work with playwright John Harding and choreographer Bernadette Walong, based on Victorian indigenous bunyip stories.’

Freeda the Free Range Canberra chook and other big mascots

Posted by hil

bheads

Friends travelling through Sydney on election day said they had seen a number of ‘lying rodents’ outside polling booths. While I’ve seen a number on the TV news, its hard to find pictures of them online. Ambit Gambit has one – I’m guessing from the text that its Chas from The Chaser – but if you know of any others, I’d be interested.

In The Chaser’s latest series, The Chaser Decides, did you notice the blurry satirical rendition of the Abu Ghraib atrocities going on in the election tally-room backdrop behind them? In the local ACT election coverage a week ago, it was funny to see Freeda, the Free Range Canberra chook mascot making the most of that backdrop space, too. She positioned herself very visibly in the crowd milling behind the commentators, and then appeared to have a lot of fun jumping and waving to the cameras, and enthusiastically blowing kisses to us as the credits rolled at the end of the night. Free Range Canberra is a campaign and a registered political party that aims to ban the production of battery eggs in the ACT, and encourage consumers to buy free range eggs. Freeda was also pictured in the Canberra Times casting her vote, and she features in a nice Abbey Road cover spoof, the chicken ‘crossing the road to get elected’, on World Egg Day 8 Oct 2004.

Meanwhile, PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who were behind Lucy, the large sheep puppet that hugged Howard and Latham during the federal election campaign, trying to bring attention to their cause of stopping the live sheep export trade, have managed to persuade the American fashion chain Abercrombie and Fitch to ban the use of Australian-produced wool in its clothing.

Speaking of large mascots, I met Constable Kip Koala, Kenny Koala’s new friend the other day ;-). As a kid – and maybe even now! – I would have run a mile from any of these big creatures, but the kids at the family day seemed to love him.

I’ve also noticed that the National Heart Foundation Australia now has a big red heart mascot.

Floriade: Giant Lifesavers, Tyre Swans, Rainbow Serpents

Posted by hil

bheads

Here are some pictures of a few other things that took my fancy at Floriade – I like the roving entertainment more than the massed European flowers.

There was a rainbow serpent swimming in Nerang Pool, designed and created by Aeon Mortimer. Its a big inflatable, and apparently it can spray a fine mist of water from its spines, creating rainbows in the air around it. Nice idea. Aeon’s puppet play The Great Big Story Book was also there. Designed as a giant pop-up book, it tells a version of the dreamtime story of Tiddalik the Frog, with puppet creatures stepping out of the pages of the book. (My favourite picture book version of Tiddalick is What Made Tiddalik Laugh by Joanna Troughton. It has lovely illustrations, and the kind of lame jokes that pre-schoolers love because they are so lame.)

I was also enjoyed catching up with Jigsaw‘s Flotsam and Jetsam, a one-woman show acted by Chrissie Shaw, and based on collected stories of children who lived on lighthouse islands in Australia. I particularly liked Mrs Ingram’s windswept dress that could be slipped into and out of in a flash.

Icarus Performance Troupe from Sydney were lots of fun, jogging about the gardens as giant muscle-bound lifesavers. They blew their whistles, bossed the crowds into swimming between the flags, and struck stong-man poses (complete with appropriate grunts and roars!) at the drop of a hat.

The flock of 100 black swans made from old rubber car tyres interested me not so much for what they were, but as a reflection on the fact that when they were common garden decorations in the 50’s and 60’s (or earlier) they were always painted white. I suppose they were part of that era’s acceptance of the idea of England as the home. As reported in the Canberra Times, the swans were made by Greg Hedger of Limestone Creek Enterprises:

‘Mr Hedger said each swan took about an hour to fashion – once he had the design sorted – plus a bit of time for painting. The tyres were heated by engine exhaust or in a glasshouse so the rubber was easier to cut and twist inside out.

The tyres were sourced from a company in Melbourne, which was believed to have held a stockpile for use as swings. While the steel belting in a modern radial tyre is good for motorists, it does not wear safely in children’s swingsets. Neither is it suitable for swan sculpting, because it’s too difficult to slice.

Sizes ranged from 12- and 13-inch car tyres to truck tyres. Mr Hedger’s offerings have been planted with a new variety of pansy, named Waterfall.

After the festival, Mr Hedger intends to take the swans under his wing. While the Floriade examples are under offer – Mr Hedger’s wife has her name on two – he’ll take up the slack afterwards. He’s already had orders from ladies in Burra and Orange and a school in Armidale. He had no idea what the swans would sell for, but would probably charge less than $100 apiece.’

There is an article about the traditional Australian art of sculpting swans from old tyres here.

Finally the Scarecrow Competition :-). I have a soft spot for the scarecrows because they come so much from the everyday community, and because such a wide interpretation of the concept of a scarecrow is acceptable. Here are some photographs of just a few of them that took my fancy:

Domestic Goddess (Woman of Steel, With Forked Tongue, Ready to Spring) by Barlin Event Hire
In Bega Everyones Dreaming of Rain, by Merimbulla Rudoplh Steiner School. The Bega Valley down on the south coast is dairy country, and must be feeling the drought as much as any of us.
French Frog by Telopea Park School. Appropriately, Telopea is a bi-lingual English/French public school.
Bunyip, by Hindmarsh Student Group (?)
Mermaid, by Braidwood Preschool Association. Their use of tin lids for scales is very effective, just as good as the CDs that many others used, for instance in the following one.
Fish, by Waniassa (?) Learning Support Unit
Refugees and Asylum Seekers don’t want a Red Carpet Welcome, by Amnesty International. I’d like to think they were prompted by my Howard last year.
Person in the Bath, by Radford College
Dragon, by the O’Connor Co-operative School. A long rhapsody in plastic!

Old Parliament House’s ‘Big Heads’ Puppets at Floriade

Posted by hil

Floriade has been on for the last month in Canberra, and tomorrow is the last day. I went in last weekend hoping to see the Old Parliament House Big Heads. These are much-larger-than-life-sized body-suit puppets of parliamentarians from days gone by. Their usual home is Old Parliament House, which is now a parliamentary museum, where they stroll around bringing the past to life.

Last year I got photos of the original three Big Heads in the Scarecrow Drive at Floriade, having an encounter with The Fool Factory‘s alien, Solar Flare:

An altercation between Solar Flare and Andrew Fisher and Alfred Deakin.
Solar Flare and Andrew Fisher shake hands.
Sir Edmund Barton takes liberties with my John Howard Scarecrow

This year there are two new Big Heads, Doc Evatt and Bob Menzies. While they have been made by the same company, eRTH, these ones have a less stylised look about them, and are more realistically modelled on the historical figures they represent. I think they are really cool. I love the demeanor of Doc Evatt, and his brown suit is just right.

eRTH is a Sydney company that does innovative large-scale theatrical performances which include ‘giant puppets, huge inflatables, acrobatics, aerial and flying creatures, stilt-walking costumes and pyrotechnics’. I would have loved to see their Gargoyles clambering over the outside of buildings, or The Neds ranging through city streets. At Floriade this year, they were also present as the Waterheads, four people with their heads in tanks of coloured water, strolling through the beds of flowers.

More ‘Lost Thing’ puppet pictures

Posted by hil

Here are some more photos of the puppet build for Jigsaw Theatre Company’s production of ‘The lost thing’. The making crew were Imogen Keen and Hilary Talbot, with help from Catherine Prosser and Marie-Martine Ferrari, and designs by Richard Jeziorny based on Shaun Tan’s book ‘The Lost Thing’.

The cat :: carved out of foam, and made to sit on a beanie that one of the puppeteers wears
The janitor :: about 70cm tall
The small version of the lost thing :: about 70cm tall
The booth lady
The parents :: about 80cm tall on their sofa
The seagulls
The tram :: about 40cm long. It has interchangeable cut-outs of the people inside
The tram :: top detail
The boys :: Pete and Shaun are 35cm tall, and the little version Shaun is 25cm
Shaping the utopia lost things out of polystyrene, and painting them in the sunshine :: Imogen Keen, Catherine Prosser & Hilary Talbot
The utopia lost things carved but not finished :: they range in size from about 40cm across (the rower) to 150cm tall (the eye)
The utopia lost things

The Lost Thing plays at the National Gallery of Australia this coming week, 6-9th Oct.

Making the puppets for ‘The Lost Thing’

Posted by hil

As promised below, here are some pictures of the build of Jigsaw Theatre Company’s production of The Lost Thing. Imogen Keen and I have been making the puppets for the production.

The aluminium structure of the Lost Thing itself was made by Brian Sudding, who also constructed the set. We then covered and detailed it, adding tentacles, claws, and eye mechanisms. The designer, Richard Jeziorny, added further painted detail. The whole framework is made to be suspended on another frame, so that the Lost Thing is about 3 metres tall.

Imogen Keen covering the basic shape of the Lost Thing with foam.
Marie-Martine Ferrari (co-founder of the original Skylark Puppet and Mask Theatre) and I covering the foam shell with muslin.
From above, showing some of the aluminium framework inside.
After the first coat of paint.
The boy’s parents on their sofa under construction.
The mysterious janitor, in an early stage of being made.

The photographs were taken by Tim Raupach. I should have some more in a few days time.

The Lying Rodent

Posted by hil

I’m in the same mind set as a net friend who recently said that he just wanted the electioneering to be over and to be able to cast his vote with grim determination. So I’m trying to let most of it pass me by. But the appearence of protestors in body suits added a couple of brief moments of levity this last week.

At the Perth campaign launch Howard was hugged by a large sheep, protesting the live sheep export trade. A few days later a large rat pestered Howard while he was electioneering on the streets in his home electorate of Bennelong, while other protestors called ‘Lying Rodent for PM’ from across the street.

The ‘lying rodent’ tag stems from a sworn statement a few weeks ago by a Queensland Liberal Party branch official, Russell Galt, that Liberal Senator Brandis said of Mr Howard in relation to the Children Overboard senate enquiry: “He is a lying rodent” and “we’ve got to go off and cover his arse again on this”. Senator Brandis denied the allegation on oath, but went on to explain with a barristor’s distinction:

‘He would only ever call Howard the rodent; never a rodent, because the former is a nickname, whereas the latter would be a pejorative term.’

According to the same article,

‘… the PM has been descriptively tagged as the rodent almost as long as he’s been ironically tagged as Honest John. The nickname dates from the long internecine war between Howard and Andrew Peacock some 15 years ago.’

It began as a reference to the way Howard ceaselessly gnawed at Peacock’s leadership, and was adopted by John Hewson supporters for much the same reason.

Some people in the Australian Rodents Fanciers Society are offended by the slur:

“We would have to say that it’s quite funny that it’s not technically correct,”

“Unfortunately, most rodents, we have around 30 at our place, actually have a little more integrity than prime ministers and politicians.”

The Lost Thing: Jigsaw Theatre Company

Posted by hil

Things have been pretty busy around here as the build for Jigsaw Theatre Company’s upcoming production of ‘The Lost Thing’ nears completion. Based on the book by Shaun Tan, ‘The Lost Thing’ is premiering at the National Gallery of Australia, as the main event of their Children’s Festival. Performances will be in the Small Theatre from 6-9 October 2004, and hopefully will tour to other galleries in time.

I’ll post some pictures of the build soon, but in the meantime, check out Finding: The Lost Thing, an article by Gillian Freeman in the current issue of Artlook. Its an interview with the director, Greg Lissaman, and Shaun Tan, (who is also the visual consultant for the show), and who was recently in Canberra working on the painting of the set with the designer, Richard Jeziorny.

Kenny Koala goes to Russia

Posted by hil

Since he emanated from my studio a few years ago, I always take an interest in the activities of Kenny Koala, the puppet mascot and community liason agent of the Australian Federal Police.

For instance, back in March, Kenny and his mate Stewart Waters celebrated Harmony Day by skydiving into Turner Oval, providing some excitement for the kids who up until his descent had been having a great deal of fun bopping each other on the head with blow-up plastic mallets courtesy of the Bunnings show bags that were being distributed.

This week 500 teddy-version Kenny Koalas are being airlifted to Beslan, to be given to the children who survived the school hostage massacre.

‘AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty said it was hoped the Kenny Koala Bears, which have been popular with generations of Canberra children, would provide some comfort to children affected by the tragedy.’

The Chequered Ribbon Association, the AFP charity which is organizing the gift, usually sells the Kenny Koala bears as a collectable limited edition toy for fundraising. They are ‘about 25cm in height and is dressed in an AFP uniform with a white peak cap.’

The CRA is asking for donations to help with financing the airlift, and to help with the fundraising there will be an auction at the Canberra Services Club (on Canberra Avenue in Manuka, next to the Manuka Oval) tomorrow, Thursday 16th September 2004 – 6pm for 7pm start. A single numbered Constable Kenny Koala will be one of the items up for auction. ‘Single numbered koalas are are only offered to the public occassionally, so this is a great opportunity to secure what is becoming highly collectable.’

Oh … and you have to know Kenny’s motto: ‘What do we want? No trouble!’ ;-)