I though I’d share this page from the Artstation Term 2 Programme with you. It promotes my upcoming course. Kit Lawrence, the photographer, has captured the essence of my art extremely well. Being a puppet artist suits me to a T. I love being in the background and happy for the puppets to have the limelight. They are such amazing creative tools. To be honest, the only difference between an object and a puppet is imagination. For me personally, having a sound imagination is extremly helpful in navigating modern life.
What the heck. I am currently trying new things. Nothing really for public viewing yet…. but I uploaded my first Munch & Kin trial as an unlisted clip to youtube. Just to show the people I am working with what the puppets can do. There are lots of things I haven’t sussed yet. For example the backdrop of the theatre. I used a triple folded net curtain. I hoped it would hide the puppeteer completely while the puppeteer on the other hand would see the puppets while working. Unfortunately you still can make out a shadow, while I couldn’t see a thing and therefore the puppets move pretty awkwardly. I had no idea which way they were facing. Also they don’t have their final dresses yet and I had to finger my way through copious amounts of material that I had fixed in a make-shift way to their handles. So to sum it up, it was a disaster really, nevertheless I do like the expression on their faces. And this is the most important bit, everything else I can learn or solve.
The local rag did an article on the film. I guess this is another milestone. Note, Lizzie has the wrong head, she looks really scared here. She will have a bit of a break for now, while I work with the new munchkins.
Everything is back to normal. The conference is over and my friend Avril has gone back home to Australia. The picture shows Avril next the poster with our star, Lizzie. We had brilliant feedback about the film from the people who watched it at the conference. Personally, I know more about Lipoedema now than I ever wanted to know :), but I guess this is why I like to get involved in such projects.
Most people were surprised that we did the film without funding. Avril and I had talked about whether we should seek funding for the project in the beginning, but it was in the too hard basket for both of us, particularly as we were working in different countries. I myself have no experience with funding agencies and I believe seeking funding would have slowed the whole thing down and made the process more cumbersome.
Would I do it again? Most certainly! Though I would rethink my view on seeking funding first…
Here is a little treat for my blog followers. Only when you have the link can you watch this film, as it is unlisted on Youtube. It is a test of my shadow puppets for the film “Fat Legs & all“. Unfortunately, these original shadow puppets didn’t find the approval of the other parties involved and I had to modify them a little. I wanted to show the sponge puppets in a savage world. But I was told that for the sponges it is not so much a feeling of living in a hostile world, but rather one of seeking approval and understanding, as they are just ignored or made fun of.
I have to admit, I was a shadow puppet! Many people are surprised that neither of us who made the film suffer from Lipoedema ourselves. For me it was a “mea culpa” project. When Avril described to me what a Lipoedema sufferer might look like, I immediately remembered my best friend at Uni. For me personally body shape is of little importance. I side with my “No body” Dedes. What counts is what is in the head. However, my mate at Uni managed to aggravate me when we were out eating. She ate so little and pushed her food around her plate for ages. Basically she ate very conscientiously and next to her I appeared like a caveman’s wife. I just gulped down what there was to eat. I always wondered what this was all about, as I ate far more, but was in much better shape. No, that’s not quite right… when sitting down, my friend looked like a real lady, but under the table it was a different story (the dress code at a baroque court would have suited her very well). And I admit it now, that I occasionally thought “If I were that unshapely, I would do something about it”.
After we finished our studies, our ways parted and I have long lost contact, but Avril’s description of the lipoedema figure brought back memories of all the good times I had with my friend.
Today is premiere day for my sponge puppet film. I will write more about it in the next few posts. Here just briefly what it is all about.
For this film I have teamed up with Avril Lunken, an lymphoedema occupational therapist from Melbourne and her daughter Tilly, a playwright in London. We thought the neutral medium of puppetry would be ideal to highlight this little-known condition which can make the lives of many women who suffer from it miserable. Lipoedema, is a condition where abnormal fatty deposits accumulate in the butt and legs but not the feet. Sometimes known as “painful fat syndrome,” women who have lipoedema often believe (or are told) they are simply over-weight but find that no amount of exercise or diet reduces the fatty deposits. Their legs and thighs are out of proportion with the rest of their body. This condition affects women only and manifests itself usually after puberty, child birth or menopause.
Imagine how soul-destroying it must be, when the only advice your doctor gives you is to loose weight, but you know too well you have already tried every diet under the sun. He then goes on to paint the bleakest picture what will happen if you don’t heed his advice…
With our film we want to reduce the prejudice towards those with the condition and instigate more research into the subject. During the next three days, Avril is presenting a poster at the 10th Australasian Lymphology Association (ALA) Conference here in Auckland. The film can be accessed by the participants of the conference via a QR code on the poster.
Life would become so much easier for sufferers, if only more people knew it is a medical condition and not a weakness of the will.
Today I am quite down. I slept very poorly after yesterday. The interview didn’t go as I expected and I have the feeling I didn’t handle my latest project very well. Now that it is finished and I have had a bit of a breather, I realise that I was once again steaming ahead on a totally different track from all the others involved. Ah well, I guess that is the reason why I will stay a poor artist forever. In the meantime I have placed my busking penguin permanently in the corner of our staircase, hoping he will collect some change. Surprisingly he has… all those loose coins are from when we do the washing. Of course the corner of our steps is not a very public place so there is not much traffic for donations. Wrong decision again! Maybe I should place him at the garden gate, next to the letter box. But then, we live in suburbia… I don’t think it will make much of a difference.
Life is pretty frantic at the moment. On Thursday the sponge puppet film will be released. Finally I am all set, the poster is printed… But you know how it is, in the end there are always a million things to attend to. This afternoon, a reporter comes round to interview me about the story… On a different note, the photographer of Artstation must have been really taken by Court Jester, as he immediately posted a picture on their facebook page . Obviously Court Jester did a good job, he made the puppeteer laugh really hard.
In the meantime, I continue stabbing wool tuffs to turn them into little sculptures. This one here is called Keith, as a tribute Keith Haring. If he had felted, I am pretty sure his figures would have looked somewhat like this.
Last Saturday we had another Dede Workshop where we created an impromptu film. Impromputu in the sense that the people who attended had to come up with a story. The only hint they have are the puppets I select prior to the participants arriving. No Devil this time! He is on his well-deserved holiday. Instead we had a pretty classic Punch & Judy cast, bar Punch and Judy. Without Devil it took the participants a while to come up with the story, but once they started acting it out, the storyline got fast and furious. If you can’t follow it entirely… don’t worry, you can trust me, there was a happy ending. Nasty Cool Cat has been imprisoned by Bobby the policeman and King and Chamber Maid live to this day.
Unlike the previous films, this one needed a little explanation at the beginning. My friend Cath and I are now wondering if we should adapt the story for a live puppet show.
I had to go and get my picture taken for the next brochure of the community art school where I am having a puppetry workshop. To make it easier for me, I thought I take two puppets along to help. It went all okay, except that I’d rather had the pics of the puppets published, than my own mug. Anyway when the job was done, we were walking down the road, when Cash Cow all of a sudden stopped and screamed. She had discovered these cushions in the window of a shop. I think she will have nightmares tonight.
dedepuppets 