Amazon UK has a couple of copies of the book ‘Ron Mueck: Boy’ by the photographer Gautier Deblonde. This is a photographic diary of the nine months it took to construct, ship and assemble the sculpture in Venice. It was the ‘Art in Photo Essays’ award recipient in the World Press Photo of the Year, 2001, but seems to be out of print at present. I was interested to see the sculpture in segments, and crated.
books
Anita Sinclair’s book ‘The Puppetry Handbook’
Anita Sinclair’s book The Puppetry Handbook is a really useful comprehensive resource for anyone involved with making puppets. It has detailed coverage (including many drawings) of the main techniques, processes and materials that are used for building all kinds of puppets, and also gives consideration as to which sort of puppet to build for different circumstances. It also has good advice on all kinds of puppetry performances and teaching puppet making. A friend of mine was showing me a new edition that she had recently ordered. Its now spiral bound and slightly larger (about an A4 size) than my old copy, both good changes I think.
Kinetic sculptures : ‘Wood that Works’
Wood that Works is a portfolio of beautiful wooden kinetic sculptures by David C. Roy who works out of Ashford, Connecticut. My favourite is Variations, but there is something about the unexpected timing in Migration, that is very attractive too. Each of the sculptures is powered by a constant force or Negator spring which you wind up to start the motion, and the movement lasts from 2 to 18 hours, depending on the sculpture.
Roy recommends one book for its great mechanism drawings: Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown (copyright 1868, 1896). Actually, I like its full title from the seventeenth edition of 1893 even better:
“Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements, Embracing All Those Which Are Most Important In Dynamics, Hydraulics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Steam Engines, Mill and other Gearing, Presses, Horology, and Miscellaneous Machinery: and including Many Movements Never Before Published and Several Which Have only Recently Come into Use”
Zarafamania
The ‘true story of a young Giraffe’s travels to France in 1826’ byline in the Sydney Puppet Theatre’s flyer for their show Z for Giraffe piqued my curiousity. Amazon lists four books telling the story of the giraffe, who was called Zafara. Two are picture books for 4 to 8 year olds: The King’s Giraffe by Mary Jo Collier and Peter Colier, and The Giraffe that Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton. (Incidentally, I wonder why the latter is commanding prices between US$100 and US$200?). A Giraffe for France by Leith Hillard, is for children a little older, 9 to 12.
Zarafa: A Giraffe’s True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris by Michael Allin seems to be the most complete account of how Zafara (a present from the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt intended to distract King Charles X while Egyptian forces invaded Greece) took France by storm, causing Zafaramania, as this review of Allin’s book by Leonard Gill relates:
‘Parisians, being Parisians, immediately saw spots, on textiles, wallpaper, crockery, soap, even furniture, and went to extended lengths to capture her profile in everything from topiary to coiffure. With hair piled fashionably high a la Girafe, women took to the floor to fit themselves and their towering creations inside carriages, and men took to learning the intricacies of tying the “giraffique” cravat to go with their “giraffique” hats. “Belly of Giraffe,” “Giraffe in love,” and “Giraffe in exile” were the season’s colors. And that winter, a new strain of influenza, “Giraffe flu,” hit the city.’
(The price for copies of this one starts at US$0.95 …)
