RESEARCH- COSTUME AND PUPPETS

From the beginning the main shape and style of my costume has been inspired by these particular  costumes below (photographed by Charles Freger):

Charles Freger- Wildermann Series- 2010- 2011

The solid head and fabric body serves as the basic foundation of my costume, as I am confident I can construct a head out of cardboard/wire and I think I can create a simple fabric body which is emphasised and made special by my printmaking and illustrations. I also think in an exhibition this kind of costume will work best in the space- by suspending the costume by the head and letting the fabric hang down- creating a space within the costume itself.

I also think the use of fabric and movement for these 'Bread and Puppet' puppets is really ingenious- I love the use of fabric for the arms and how it really emphasises the characters. This type of engineering is something that I could consider for my own costume, and I need to really think about adding more to the bear or if I am happy with it being more like a giant hand puppet. I also love the scale of these puppets, and how they really command the space they are in.

These masks by Lithuanian artist Stasys Eidrigevicius really incorporate his style into his 3D creations, and I definitely want my bear head and fabric costume to be my illustrations 'come to life'. Again I love the interaction between the person and the mask, and this type of participation is something that interests me when it comes to making and presenting this costume. Again, something that is very prevalent with these costumes and masks is the scale- and I like experimenting with size when it comes to my work.

Jen also sent me a bizarre video of a tour around an exhibition in Barcelona called 'Metamorphosis: Fantasy Visions in Starewitch, Svankmajer and the Quay Brothers', which shows clips of animation as well as the puppets, models and costumes that were used to make it. (All screen shots taken from the video)

The stillness of these creatures in the exhibition really escalates the creepiness of them especially when juxtaposed with the movement in then animations- which has that old fashioned jitteriness that is common amongst old stop motion animations. 

I also really like that they show the 'animators studio', displaying the tools and items used to create the puppets:

In general the bizarre animal human hybrids and mystical models really relate to my theme, and I think the clearly human-made aspect of these characters adds to the atmosphere and mood of the animations- they are clearly not supposed to be realistic or perfect and because of that it adds this eeriness to the figures and the films that they appear in.