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Friday, May 15, 2009

Visual Art Puppets Are Better Than Humans, Part I

Posted by Jen Graves on Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:40 AM

Tonight is the members' opening for The Puppet Show at the Frye. Tomorrow is the public opening.

This show is one of those times that the free admission at the Frye is an utterly immoderate gift.

The show is big, strange, and rich. It is full of important artists who are assembled not because of their big names, but because the curators actually had a fascinating new way to bring them together and let them loose (Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Kara Walker, William Kentridge, Dennis Oppenheim, Christian Jankowski, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Guy Ben-Ner, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, etc).

If those names do not interest you, there are these: Pinocchio, Lamp Chop, Fozzie the Bear, Grover. This show is not for children. Lamp Chop, Fozzie, and Grover, for instance, are involved in a puppet conference with a metaphysical bent.

While this show is not for children, it is for absolutely everyone else. I'll post more images and words in the days to come, but here's a scene from Laurie Simmons's story about the a girl puppet who turns real (actual Meryl Streep).

Cocurator Ingrid Schaffner is giving a talk, Backstage at The Puppet Show, tomorrow at the Frye at 2.

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Nightmarish picture.

Posted by jackie treehorn

on May 15, 2009 at 12:11 PM

This picture reminds me why I watch movies with Meryl, cause I am desperatly trying to figure out what she is feeling/thinking when she looks like that...

Posted by Tina on May 15, 2009 at 12:12 PM

Of course puppets are better. Any Madame fan could've told you that.

Posted by Balt-O-Matt on May 15, 2009 at 12:25 PM

I can't wait for the show AND Ingrid's lecture. Ingrid also cocurated Dirt on Delight in Philadelphia (including local favorite, Jeffry Mitchell).

Posted by joey veltkamp

on May 15, 2009 at 12:52 PM

What's a "Lamp Chop?"

Posted by What's a Lamp Chop? on May 15, 2009 at 5:41 PM

I've been wanting to see The Puppet Show long before I'd heard it was coming here.

I'm sure Ms Held et al, jumped through hoops to get this show. What a relief it didn't go elsewhere, like to the VAG, for instance.

Thank you, Frye!!!

Posted by gleemy on May 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM