Thomas Tait
Thalweg, 2020
Paper mâché, fabric, polyurethane foam, plastics, wire, paint, found objects
14.5 x 12 x 3 inches
36.8 x 30.5 x 7.6 cm
ThT 3
Story Tellers: Puppets by Artists
(January 22 - March 26, 2022)
STORY TELLERS: Puppets by Artists was inspired by photographs of a collection of wonderful hand puppets made by Paul Klee for his family. Puppets take us back to a passionate period in our childhood when they were everything: the mediators between worlds, the tellers of stories that did not have to be logical or linear, the incarnations of tribal and cultural myths from the global human unconscious. As children, we were obsessed with the performance of Davey Jones Locker with the incredibly beautiful Bill Baird puppets when it premiered at Town Hall in New York, Baird created an entire underwater alternate universe. Those puppets were as magical and mysterious to us as the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History. They were literally ‘Hands On’.
Our idea for this exhibition was specific. We wanted to show non-whimsical puppets for adults. We wanted puppets with gristle; not Lambchop from Shari Lewis’ time on TV. We wanted something between the non-puppet poppets of witchcraft and the poupées of Michel Nedjar. We wanted a touch of global Dada. As Klee had achieved with his puppets, we wanted puppets borne by natural unfettered inspiration, the creators exercising the freedom of their varied intentionalities.
Now we are ready to show the first results of our efforts in the exhibition STORY TELLERS: Puppets by Artists, the first of a continuing program that will explore the many artists who play in this alternative yet basically human theater of magic, drama, and sophisticated beauty. Puppets range from the ephemeral and ethereal to the brutish manifestations of sacred monsters.
The participating artists in this showing are Abigail Brown, Larry Calkins, Maria Denjongpa, Jan Harrison, Juliet Lockhart, Jason Matherly, Kosmo Nauty, Brian Paccione, Elizabeth Rogers, Thomas Tait, Jean-François Veillard and Gregory Van Maanen.
We hope you enjoy this spotlighted experiment.
For further information please call us at 212-226-3768 or email us at info@cavinmorris.com.
