Post #3: So what do these puppets look like?
 
In designing the look of the Serendib puppets, I wanted to combine the monkeys’ physical qualities with aesthetics drawn from Sri Lankan arts, crafts and culture.
 
 
 
The monkeys’ delicate bone structure and the warm ochre and copper tones of their coloring set the general shape and look of the puppets. Just as the monkeys’ faces and hands are very defined and clear (and less obscured by fur) the puppets’ detailed faces and hands will be featured in the design.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As the puppets in Serendib are by no means intended to look like Real Monkeys, the look of the puppets also draws from ordinary people in Sri Lanka
 
Draped and folded lengths of cloth worn by men, women, and monks.  The ubiquitous rattan and wicker baskets.
 
And of course we also get some interesting post-colonial echoes as well...
 
(this would be where things get more interesting and complicated, and maybe a little bit Meta.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sri Lankan Buddha sculptures’ traditional aesthetics also inform the puppet design - these are Sri Lanka’s temple monkeys, after all, and the puppets carry a kind of  reverence and magic in Serendib.
 
Detailed, expressive face and hands  are juxtaposed with highly stylized robes (or bodies, in the puppets).  
 
Metallic texturess add lustre and a sense of weight.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Designs!
 
 
Rattan and wicker shapes define the lines.
 
Volume is created with metallic, textured silks.  
 
The face of each monkey is a “mask” sculpted and cast in plastic, treated to look like hammered metal.  Lustrous but not glossy. Each mask is mounted on a rattan sphere,  which forms the back of the head.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
At Last: The Look.
Sunday, January 28, 2007