Sunday 15 June 2014

puppet collection 1 traditional New Zealand Maori puppet

Suppose that is part of the interest and work with the marionettes, you collect the ones from around the world. Most people will have seen the shadow puppets from Indonesia that are a standard tourist take away. Let me show you one closer to home.
Here is a Karetao, beautifully carved by Riki Manuel for my production 'YES'. You might like to look at the other websites too

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/object/39358/karetao-puppet-early-1800s

http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=29


The figure is 460 mm tall. The photo does not show the lower extension where you hold on to it. By moving the hand piece and relaxing and tightening the string holding the arms you get a lot of movement. Put this into an environment with a natural light source like a small fire in a whare, they must have had an amazing powerful impact. Very few old ones are in collections in New Zealand and overseas.

No comments:

Post a Comment