The cut-out figures of ten colourfully-costumed puppets are painted and stacked in a row to create a three-dimensional effect. They are resting on some kind of stand, with real wooden sticks and string, representing the supports used to manipulate the puppets, trailed behind them. They are so tactile they tempt an onlooker to want to pick them up. In the background, magazine pages have been painstakingly shredded, the shreds arranged by colour to create a blurred mosaic effect.
The judges appreciated the careful thought and detailing put into the treatment of different media in this work and intrigued by the look of the puppets, which triggered a discussion about what tradition they may belong to. From their Chinese opera costumes and the method of puppeteering, they may be identified as belonging to the world of Teochew puppet theatre, which may have had ancient origins in a form of shadow puppetry. This is an increasingly rare form still practised mostly in Penang, coming to life especially during the Hungry Ghost Festival.
The artist’s primary intention is to acknowledge the beauty of the puppetry craft and tradition: “Puppetry is a very ancient form of theatre, it occurs in almost all human societies. The puppets are made according to the needs of the story, and they each play their own role. Most people use puppets to present different show such as operas, dramas, musicals, serials, etc. Puppetry takes many forms, but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects to tell a story.”
There seems to be another hidden story here, however. In the back corner of the picture, there is an old fruit box used to store parts, a woven plastic basket, a low rattan stool and some form of woven mat – humble items which tell us something of the life of those who work behind the puppets, behind the scenes.