A Little Art History: A Three Part Series on Various Types of Puppetry

Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC.  Puppetry is used in almost all human societies both as an entertainment – in performance – and ceremonially in rituals and celebrations such as carnivals. There are similarities and differences depending on the country of origin – like Africa, Asia, European. For example, they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects. Most puppetry involves storytelling, sometimes movement and music.

With so many types of puppets from all over the globe, it's easy to be overwhelmed.  I like to think of it as visiting an art museum - I get to see art from all over.  Puppetry, when handcrafted in meticulous detail, is absolutely gorgeous.  When I take an anthropological look at the art form and consider each country's time, rituals and religion, societal and gender roles, cultural expectations, and more, it really amazes me how despite the varying techniques and craftsmanship, all puppetry conveys simple and timeless messages and human emotions.

In a performance setting - a festival or theater, even a parade - it's important the puppet have a contex.  Even in a parade when it's more about presentation and show, there should still be attention to detail, emotion and a story of sorts that a bystander can imagine.  In a theatrical setting, even simple stories should follow a thoughtful techniques and/or narrative, with attention to the movement and any music.  It's good to have a director involved in any theatrical performance. 

Over the next two weeks, I'm going to highlight a few popular forms of puppetry we see in performance today and encourage my readers to keep an open mind and go beyond what you might already know about puppetry.  Since puppetry has deep roots in ancient cultures, it is often misunderstood in the States, or worse, done very poorly in a jouvenile, childish way.  Forget all that and put your college learning hat on - the one that always wanted to take an art history class. That is the lens to view these posts.

Week 1 -- Three Forms of Puppetry

Black light puppets are operated on a stage lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which both hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colours of the puppet. The best modern day example of this is ImaginOcean.

ImaginOcean

Bunraku puppets are a type of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago, the puppeteers dress in black although their presence as kind of 'shadow' figures adds an element of mystery to the performance. Bunraku traditionally uses three puppeteers to operate a puppet that is 2/3 life size.

2 Bunraku puppets

Carnival/Body puppets are the life sized puppets we see in various parades and carnivals (especially international), operated by one or more persons. The puppets may often be suspended from aerial rigs (similar to the American float). An example of wonderful carnival puppets can be found at the annual Italian Carnival of Viareggio (Italian: Carnevale di Viareggio) held in the Tuscan city of Viareggio. The masks and puppets are made of paper mache, depicting caricatures of popular people.

Top: Carnival of Viareggio; Bottom: Puppet and puppeteer in Hong Kong

Stay tuned...I'll be back before the holiday with Part II.