I have worked with the puppet, and ideas around the puppet, for probably pretty much the whole time I've made art. So it's always been there, in some form or another. One word that might encompass all of those experiences, I would say experimentation. Objects that I'd move around the studio. And then gradually over the years, I sort of started to formalise that more into bodies of work. And felt that it was a completely valid part of my practice, because I was looking at some of the early modernist artists in particular. A lot of the women artists, but also Paul Klee in particular, for this particular project around the hand puppet as well.
But also, along with the hand puppet, there is this sort of shadow puppet as well. And I have a collection of Wayang Kulit puppets from Indonesia that I've had since I was in my early twenties. And had them as objects. And then gradually my work moved into ideas around the shadow and then the shadow puppets as well. And also, I've had puppets that are like marionettes. They embody lots of different things, at different times. But it's a sort of part of the practice. It definitely is a kind of practice. And meaning, for different suites of work, builds out of those, you know, experimental if you like, objects.
This is what's the strange thing about puppets. They're inanimate until you make them animate. I mean they're very conceptual for me, I think, in the end. Rather than being descriptive of a particular character. And that's why thinking about this project's been really great, because I realise how psychological they are for me as objects.
They both sit in the sort of experimentation with materials. But also in the conceptual with the ideas. They sort of are like drawings, but they're also like sculpture. Depending on their different forms. But I could put all of those characteristics to the most simplest, and the most complex. They fit all of those things.
