I’m delighted by the way ceramic artist Suzanne Stumpf engages us with her interactive sculptures, encouraging us to become more than just viewers, enticing us to play with her. Oh, the joy of touching that texture, of manipulating sounds, of rearranging colors and patterns. . .
Changeable Views
Changeable Views, reverse
Play With Me
The award winning artist is also a professional musician on the faculty of Wellesley College where she teaches flute and chamber music.
Trompe d’oeil
Explaining how her experience as a musician influences this series Stumpf says, “These flexible sculptures allow for creating variations in the artwork such as might be experienced in the live performance of a musical composition from concert to concert.”
Trompe d’oeil in action
Whale Sounds
Whale Sounds, detail
“Since 2007, my work has included increasing numbers of multi-component and interactive sculptures that invite participation from the viewer. Most of these works have innumerable permutations for viewing. Perhaps also influenced from my background as a professional musician, these flexible sculptures allow for creating variations in the artwork such as might be experienced in the live performance of a musical composition from concert to concert.” Suzanne Stumpf
The Ice Book, a combination of animation, puppetry and film, brings a new dimension to pop-up books. The viewer watches a story – of a princess who lures a boy into the forest to warm her heart of ice – but they are seeing only part of the story.
The rest of the story, how husband and wife team Kristin and Davy McGuire had a big dream, a little money, a steep learning curve and a lot of perseverance – is one we can all learn from.
The message? Keep dreaming, don’t let obstacles get in your way AND if you remain open to the possibilities, sometimes the end result is very different, but even better than the dream.
“We created the show during a four month artist residency at the Kuenstlerdorf Schoeppingen in Germany. All we had was a 5D Mark ii, an old Macbook with After Effects, some builders lights and a green cloth that we improvised as a makeshift green-screen. Before we started we had no idea how to make pop-up books let alone how we could combine them with projections. With a lot of care, love and arguing the idea eventually came to life.”
With a miniature stage made of pop-up cut-outs, this paper theater is brought to life using light and film projection to create an ethereal, haunting artwork. Watch both videos to get a full understanding of what it took to make The Icebook.
My unending fascination with the magical world of puppets led me to the TED talk below, the discovery of South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company and the genius of the company’s founders, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler.
Imagine going to the theater expecting to listen to actors unfold a compelling story, only to discover that the main character is a puppet who does not speak. Imagine and be humbled by the tremendous skill not only of the puppeteers who manipulate the puppet, but by the craftsmen who build these utterly beautiful works of art.
TED Talk, April 2011
Here’s a short demonstration of the horse puppet.
And one more!
There is also a movie about the making of Warhorse – check out the trailer below.
