September, 2010 Dear Friends, Supporters, and Fellow Artists, Urban theorist Mark Schuster, in his essay on "signature ephemera," describes "the sense of creating and affording surprise balanced by the expectation of return to routine. The life of the city becomes a bit less predictable and more becomes possible if only for a moment." * A typical parade is anticipated by predictable signs – the blocked off parking spaces, the posters or announcements, and gathering lines of people gazing expectantly into an empty street. But imagine a parade that comes out of nowhere, unheralded and unexplained . . . This spring we began experimenting with smaller processions in more playful and unexpected contexts, spontaneous site-specific appearances for inadvertent audiences. Two commissioned projects, one in the streets of Istanbul, and the other in the aisles of a Metro-North commuter train, enabled us to engineer precarious encounters with processions in public space. Of course, in traditional Carnival cultures, surprise encounters are the norm, and this Halloween, we are honored to be collaborating with Didier Civil, a renowned Haitian mask artist from Jacmel. Didier will be joining us for our annual Puppetraisings every Saturday in October, to help create this year's theme performance, Memento Mori. As always, we hope you all can find the time to come work with us as our Halloween season gets underway. And this year, even if you can't make it to a workshop, you can still help the Village Halloween Parade with your vote of support to win a $50,000 Refresh grant (details below). All for now. Hoping our paths will cross again soon, Alex and Sophia |
|
|
THE KARAGÖZ VARIATIONS: Shadow Puppets in Istanbul At the European Off-Network Festival in Istanbul, Turkey, we created a procession of projections, inspired by the centuries-old Karagöz shadow theater tradition still performed in Turkey. We worked with international festival participants and local artists to infuse traditional characters – Karagöz the trickster, Hacivat the academic, Tiryaki the addict, etc. – with contemporary issues and imagery. Combining tracings from existing shadow-puppets with digital imagery and hand-drawn artwork, participants re-imagined Karagoz characters in light of their own disparate cultural perspectives. On May 8, 30 performers from over a dozen countries stepped off onto Istanbul’s famed Istiklal Cadessi, forming a mischievous serpentine procession of animated shadow-puppets on giant white umbrellas. Find out more and see photos... |
COMMUTE OF THE SPECIES: An Invasive Journey On May 22, PAW led a cumulative procession of invasive species on board a Metro-North commuter train and through the streets of Katonah, NY. Commissioned by the Katonah Museum of Art, Commute of the Species transformed the everyday commuter experience into an impromptu allegory of migration, habitat expansion, and unforeseen consequences. Six different Hudson Valley invasive animal and plant species, from European Starlings to Zebra Mussels, boarded the train at prearranged stops and meandered back through the cars of literally be-wildered passengers. The 30 puppets and masked performers in commuter attire were greeted in Katonah by the latest invasive – a Chinese Mitten Crab – and a host of other puppets and costumes for a final procession of 200 participants through town. |
|
|
8th ANNUAL MORINESIO MIDSUMMER PAGEANT June marked our 8th Annual Pageant Puppetry Workshop and Midsummer Procession in the Italian Alps! This growing tradition in the small mountain village of Morinesio continues to rekindle oral histories and folktales unique to the Occitan culture of the Val Maira. This year, the scope of the workshop expanded with the support of University of Michigan students in the service-learning GIEU program. Led by our friend and Festifools director, Mark Tucker, the students collaborated with workshop participants, helped farmers harvest crops, and restored trails along the region's medieval salt roads. |
37th Annual NY VILLAGE HALLOWEEN PARADE: Memento Mori This year we will reimagine and rejuvenate the Halloween Parade's iconic Day of the Dead puppets who first appeared 20 years ago, linking New York's festival of All Souls to ritual traditions worldwide – the Guede in Port-au-Prince, the Skull and Bones Gang of New Orleans, the calaveras of Mexico, the Midnight Robbers of Trinidad, and beyond. In places where tragedy is more ubiquitous and everyday existence can be more of a struggle, one finds that festive expressions of the Dead are the most exuberant, affirming the resilience of memory and our capacity to celebrate in the face of hardship. In this spirit, we welcome the chance to work with master maskmaker Didier Civil, whose studio and school in Jacmel, Haiti were destroyed in the recent earthquake. Didier will be working in tandem with us on Memento Mori, bringing his techniques and his artistic perspective, while working with Puppetraising volunteers to help reignite Haiti's Kanaval spirit on the streets of New York. Learn more on the PAW website. . .
HOW TO GET INVOLVED: Come and work! Join us on Halloween Night! Help Fund the Parade!
The Parade is facing drastic funding cuts this year, and the grant will help continue the creation and rejuvenation of the Parade’s puppets, as well as supporting more musicians, artists and performers. |
|
*J. Mark Schuster, "Ephemera, Temporary Urbanism, and Imaging" , in Imaging the City—Continuing Struggles and New Directions, ed. Lawrence J. Vale and Sam Bass Warner Jr. (CUPR Books, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2001) |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|