This project explored the movement of a cat through puppetry. Through designing and constructing the puppet and using springs and elastic to control certain elements of movement, I was able to create a naturally articulated cat puppet. With manipulation techniques such as using breath to prompt the life of the puppet, a short performance was devised exploring the puppet’s movement (video below).
Having life is not natural for a puppet, for it is dead. It’s uncanny life is in the spectator’s (and sometimes the puppeteer’s) mind. The way an object is moved can coerce the audience to see beyond the artifice.
‘Grace appears most purely in that human form which either has no consciousness or an infinite consciousness. That is, in the puppet or in the god’ (Heinrich Von Kleist)