tony abbott

Big Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten puppets

Posted by hil

I’ve continued to make large puppet heads of Australian politicians for Matt Armstrong. In December 2018 I finished one of Scott Morrison, who had just become Prime Minister after rolling Malcolm Turnbull.

Fairly soon afterwards in March 2019 there was a call for a Bill Shorten puppet head. The life of this one was remarkably short, since Shorten’s Labor lost the election it was expected to win.

There are now five of these – Abbott, Turnbull, Joyce, Morrison and Shorten. Canberra Museum and Gallery has currently borrowed the Abbott and Shorten puppets for display in their exhibition Activism: forces for change in Canberra, which runs until early November.

On the opening night of the exhibition, the Joyce and Turnbull puppets mingled with the crowd, and it was fun to get a photo of all four of them together.

There has been a lot of interest in these puppets, and they appear in the media quite often. In September 2018 the ABC had a nice article about them, with an accompanying video.

Tony Liar Pants on Fire puppet : Hands and flames

Posted by hil

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I’ve recently made new hands for the Tony Liar Pants on Fire puppet, as well as some flames to accompany his smoking pants. Meanwhile he has appeared at a rally at the ANU to protest Abbott’s changes to higher education, and the March Australia protest in Melbourne last weekend.

And now you can keep up with Real Big Tony on FaceBook.

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Videos of the giant Abbott puppet

Posted by hil

Here are 3 videos of the giant Tony Abbott puppet at the Bust the Budget rally last Sunday.

Abbott ripping up a promise:

Abbott arrives at the rally:

Tony ‘liar,liar pants on fire’ Abbott breaking promises in front of the crowd:

Giant Tony Abbott puppet: Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Posted by hil

At the rally
Liar, liar, pants on fire! Giant Abbott puppet at Bust the Budget, Parliament House, Canberra, 6 July 2014

Over the last few weeks I’ve been involved with the making of a giant 3 metre tall protest puppet of the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, with the theme of Liar, liar, pants on fire. Matthew Armstrong, who came up with the concept, brought together the skills of a number of Canberra artists to make, assemble and perform the puppet within a pretty short timeframe. Thanks, too, to Dario Vacirca and Mark Timberlake from KneeHigh, now Open Space,  in Adelaide who hired us the frame and advised us on various aspects.

The Abbott puppet debuted at the Bust the Budget anti-austerity rally on an icy cold day at Parliament House, Canberra, on 6th July. Matthew is now improving the puppet in a number of ways, ready for more appearances.

I made the head of the puppet from foam sheeting. Here are some photos of the process.

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