puppets

Influence of Royal de Luxe spreads

Posted by hil

Dogpuppet

(photo credit: jazamarripae)

It’s interesting when you can see a show like Royal de Luxe having an influence on the culture. I think something like that might have been at work in this dog puppet that was at Barcelona’s Món del llibre, an annual fair to promote book reading/purchasing, oriented towards children. According to jazamarripae (thanks!) there were a couple of dogs and some camels, and this strange thing, all mounted on wheels and operated by levers and pulleys.

I mentioned a giant Korean boy puppet before, but have found a few more pictures of him in Korean now: photos from anomi1: 1, 2, 3,4. I’d still be interested to find out more about him and who made him. From the same occasion there is also this face which has the same puppet mechanism marks at the side of it’s mouth.

This cool girl puppet (photo by driguiluza) in Chile, where Royal de Luxe toured earlier this year, is another example.

_Kreibel_, who started the Royal de Luxe Central group photo pool at Flickr, has some related stencils, and a tutorial on how to do them. He also has some photos of Kijk mij! a street exhibition of Jordi Bover’s photographs of the audience watching Royal de Luxe.

Les Machines de l’île de Nantes

Posted by hil

Thanks to Darthbob from Laprise.org who recently alerted me to a new project related to Royal de Luxe, Les Machines de l’île de Nantes, which opened over this last weekend.

Machines

Planned as a new artistic, cultural and tourist venture, and part of an urban renewal of the docklands, it consists of numerous large mechanical creatures to build dreams around, imagined by François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice. They are installed in the great naves of the old shipyards on the island of Nantes, France.

First, there is a great elephant, similar to the Sultan’s, but a bit bigger at 12 metres high, which can take 30 passengers on its back for a 30 minute journey. It will journey every day.

Then there will be a huge tree, with branches that you can walk within. In time there will be herons in the tree, and people will be able to take rides in baskets below their wings.

Herontreerdl

The third part is a gallery of imagined machinical marine creatures, also rideable:

Le Luminaire des grands fonds:

Angler

(photo credit: Claude Joannis)

La Larve de crabe:

Larvae

(photo credit: Claude Joannis)

Le Poisson pirate:

Piratefish

(photo credit: Claude Joannis)

Le Calamar à rétropropulsion:

Squid

(photo credit: Claude Joannis)

La Raie manta:

Manta

(photo credit: Claude Joannis)

I think there is also a royal crab planned.

Other links:

Royal de Luxe – this unofficial French site is always the best for all up-to-date RdL news.

At Nantes Métropole:

  • dossier presse Eléphant
  • machinesfr.pdf
  • Les Machines de l’île : check links from this page
  • Les Machines de l’île: this site has plans, sketches, video and photos:

    • video 1: intro, bits of elephant and branches, maquette of the tree
    video 2: adapting the original buildings, building the elephant, in particular its feet!
    video 3: making the models of the creatures – very cute little squid, manta
    video 4: piecing the iron and wooden shell of the elephant together with crane.

    photos 1 – 18: the opening, with elephants first parade
    photos 19 – 26: models
    photos 27 – 49: making the elephant
    photos 50 – 55: the buildings

Maville.com’s special coverage: check out the manta, the angler fish in particular.

France 3: Les Fabuleuses Machines de l’île has a cool photo gallery – the best photo of the crab larvae so far.

At Flickr:

L’Internaute Magazine photo gallery: cool workshop making photos (added 19.7.07)

Finding Nemo on Ice

Posted by hil

Disney sure milks every drop out of it’s successes. After first becoming a musical, Finding Nemo – On Ice is about to tour in Australia. It’s quite interesting to see how they have tackled the puppets, however. For a quick overall impression, you can see a range of them on the video linked on this page, and there are some good photos by Conrado4 at Flickr. It seems like I was not the only one to find the idea of ‘finding Nemo on ice’ amusing, and wonder about the placement of the fish eyes.

It’s not so much the repetition of a favourite story that is so depressing about productions like this, but that they have to follow the exact same path and shiny look every time, there are no variables, and it’s all locked in. When my kids were babies I had a similar reaction to Fisher Price activity centres, though I am yet to meet someone who felt the same dislike of them. I see they are now collectable vintage on Ebay.

Search for a Scapegoat

Posted by hil

Notsorry

I’ve written previously about Shan Jayaweera’s John Howard puppetry satires. Now with an election looming later in the year, ‘Australian Prime Minister John Howard needs to find something
new to blame and scare the voters into voting for him’. Follow his efforts in a welcome new series, John Howard – Search for a Scapegoat:

  • Episode 1: Howard looks at former grand Mufti Sheik Taj el din al Hilali.
  • Episode 2: John Howard goes into the music world to find two potential scapegoats to help him win the next election. There is also an advertisement for the latest Liberal Party
    Reception centre.

John Cox: How to make a monster

Posted by hil

Gillmanx

John Cox‘s exhibition How to Make a Monster has been travelling around Australia for some time now, and at present it’s at the Scienceworks Museum in Melbourne until mid July. John’s work became known with his making of the animal cast in Babe, but he has since been involved in many movies, including Crocodile Dundee in LA, George of the Jungle 2, Peter Pan, and Inspector Gadget 2. Often exhibitions only hint at how things are made, but How to Make a Monster looks as if it goes into the making process in detail. I feel there is often a hunger for this kind of information, perhaps especially among children. The willingness to share such detail both here and on his website is a generosity I respect and appreciate.

How to make a monster: the art and technology of animatronics is a great review, talking through many of the facets of the exhibition, while Ghoul School ‘explores the workshop of Australia’s pre-eminent monster-maker’.

I’m interested Cox uses computer technology linked with a router for some sculpting.

The 9-metre crocodile made for Peter Pan is amazing. Check out the video studio for footage of the crocodile being tested…

Jcox

It took 4 months to make and is a favourite of Cox’s, and of the puppeteer, Richard Mueck:

‘RICHARDMUECK (SCULPTOR/PUPPETEER): This was an absolute joy to perform. This was possibly the most powerful, impressive puppet I’ve ever had my hands on, and I was like a little kid in a toy shop who just got the coolest Christmas present. — ABC 7.30 Report

Unfortunately, due to financial pressures, the director had to cut its use to a cameo role: “You see it open one eye and move its head about 30 centimetres,” Cox says. “We could have done that with a head on a stick.”

Experience has taught him not to be too precious about his creations. Making them is the real buzz; what happens after that is often beyond his control. “We got to build this amazing, big thing and it worked,” he says. “It makes for an interesting story and there are no bad feelings.” – SMH

This rings absolutely true. As do Cox’s practical hints for students.

Rambling

Posted by hil

Orange and blue

Not sure why I thought of this photo this morning. It was taken about 18 months ago at Middleton in South Australia, and I love the washed out summer look with the orange and blue.

I had the pleasure of having lunch with fellow Canberra blogger Ampersand Duck a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed it — thanks, AD!

That day I also picked up a copy of Northern Lights, the first in Philip Pullman‘s trilogy His Dark Materials. I’ve been intending to read it since blogging about the theatrical production which featured puppetry daemons designed by Michael Curry, and now by the news that it’s being made into a film, The Golden Compass, which has a release date at the end of this year. I’ve already dived in, and I’m finding the story engrossing.

I wonder how the daemons will be done in the film?

Bent Objects

Posted by hil

Bent

Terry at Bent Objects makes these lovely whimsical figures and scenes with wire and everyday objects. They remind me of the wire figues in Calder’s Circus, and I can imagine them being brought to life as puppetry.

Kite

(via Craft Magazine)

Puppetry and dancing at altitude

Posted by hil

Nati

(photo credit: David Fletcher)

Radio National’s Bush Telegraph has audio of their April 23rd interview with Jillian Pearce (fast forward to the 36 minute mark). Jillian is a performance artist living in Natimuk, the small town at the foot of rock-climbing mecca, Mt Arapiles, in rural Victoria. Jillian and her performing arts company, Y Space, have for some years been doing exciting work with rock-climbers, dancers, animation and puppetry in ‘unusual and high places’, such as the Natimuk wheat silos, exploring images, stories and relationships with the space and land. Check out their past and present projects, and some of their video.

Where the Wild Things Are: link dump

Posted by hil

Sendak

(Photo credit: wellingtonany)

Mentioning the Spike Jonze film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are a few days ago reminded me that I had a bunch of WWTA/Sendak links that I collected when I was trying to scrounge information about the film. (As it happens they are keeping things very well under wraps, which is understandable.)

Take a Swim on the Wild Side: article about the filming taking place in Nov 2006 on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. There are two pictures of one of the monsters on the beach,and wading out in the water, but don’t get too excited – they are so tiny you can’t really make anything out! It describes the puppets (made by Henson) as follows:

The seven creatures stand up to 275 centimetres tall. Although made of foam, they are heavy and hot for the actors and stunt doubles operating them. Word is they wear them with the head on for no more than 30 minutes at a time, with 10 and 15-minute breaks in front of an air-conditioner… Heavy boots inside the suit and massive clawed hands make it difficult to move.

Loungelistener’s photoset of the performance of Where the Wild Things Are at Detroit Opera House, performed by the Grand Rapids Ballet. Some very cool picture of huge puppets on stage and behind the scenes.

Hand puppets and soft toys, and here
Action figures 1,2,3,4,5,6
Graffiti/stencil in Melbourne
Stencil art
Jack-o-lantern
Leg tattoo
Max tattoo
Mural in LA
Mural at the Philadelphia Flower Show, 2006
Costumes at DragonCon
Float in Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 2006
Pavement chalk art
6 part home videos of WWTA Interactive Metreon theme park – glimpses of one of the big puppets.
The Rosenbach Museum has Sendak Gallery (holding original drawings), shop, and is hosting a Spring Festival this coming week
Mommy a video about Sendak’s new pop-up book.
WWTA animation, I think the 1988 one.

There now, I can delete my Wild Things bookmark folder!