Run Up to the End

Six days left,

I've been hard at work since the post before last; made the clothes for my puppet which look pretty, pretty good. Have also been thinking about taking pictures of me dressed up (and made up) exactly like it, with ropes attached to my arms and legs. The face is also now finished and painted, which looks quite scary.

This morning I managed to get the house to myself for a few hours, I took advantage of the privacy to make recordings in order to make an ambient soundtrack. This included going back into my dark past and recording me shouting at myself. I'll be mixing a final version of the track later tonight, probably.

Continuing with the work I've done, I made a wallpaper which is looking rather good too.

That's just about all the individual elements I'm going to be using. I've had to streamline my ideas somewhat, as you can see. The gremlin idea was progressing well - I was going to use a spot-welded wire frame to shape the body, and use pappier mache for the head/face, but not only was it going to take too long, it also seemed to clutter the appearance of the installation.

So what is the darn thing going to look like?

Well I do need to draw a plan for my assessment, but I haven't drawn it yet so I'll describe it and the idea behind it.

The installation will take up around about a two metre piece of wall-space. the wall will be papered with my wallpaper (which I'm printing on Mon/Teus hopefully). The desk will be positioned facing this wall, sitting on a piece of scrappy, rubbish carpet. On the desk will be placed an old desk lamp, the puppet (on some sort of stand), and an old radio. If I print my photographs, I might hang them on the wall. The top desk drawer will be filled with doll bits, and the pieces of paper. The bottom drawer will be heavily locked (large padlock, belts, ropes, maybe some chain). In the drawer will be my amp, plugged into a CD player, playing the ambient noise. There will be a chair of some description also at the desk.

The idea behind this installation is that I have built an imaginary character, who lives in the room. This character suffers symptoms of psychosis and schizophrenia. I.E. he sees hallucinations, and hears them too. My puppet-making character attempts to stop these imaginary characters affecting himself too much by making puppets and dolls of them, and locking them away in his desk or around the house. The puppet of himself is him expressing how trapped and controlled he feels by his own voices. Maybe by constructing these lifeless effigies of lifeless characters, he hopes to release them from his own mind - projecting them onto dolls.

Dolls, and toys are the freakiest things when you think about them. Just read Living Dolls by Gaby Wood, to see what I mean.

Anyway, I feel that's enough info for now. I'll add information about the butterfly ball soon too. I need LOTS OF PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED!!!

Good luck with your projects, everyone.

-Matt

PS: got photo's now click for biggie:

1) First images of puppet and clothes
2) Puppet head development (Need to add hair!) and comparison to me first thing in the morn
3) Attempts to camouflage my eyes
4) My £5 radio