Contemporary Puppetry is Serious Business

If you think only of children's entertainment when you think of "puppetry," you would have had your mind changed on Sunday evening at the Katonah Museum of Art. Three representatives of contemporary puppet theatre discussed the art and its current status as performance art.

Dan Hurlin joked that when he tells people he is a puppeteer, he is frequently asked if he does children's parties. Yet his recent performance piece, parts of which are on display at the museum, concerns the Hiroshima Maidens, women who were disfigured during the bombing of Hiroshima and who came to the United States for surgical repair.

"We will really win the battle when we discuss children's puppetry like it is the exception, not the rule," Hurlin said.

"Puppets are ciphers, blank slates," said Hurlin. Audience members project parts of themselves onto the puppet, in a way that does not happen when they are watching a human actor, he noted.

Hanne Tierney noted how puppet theater can be the essence of gesture. Tierney is known for her "object puppetry," where objects such as a stick or a piece of cloth are moved by strings on pulleys. "Puppetry is not what it does, but how it is done," she said.

Part of a scene from Tierney's work, How Wang-Fo Was Saved, is on display. The scene features stiffened kimonos that represent the characters and other objects that are linked to counterweights. During a show she may be operating as many as one hundred strings, she noted.

Both Tierney and Hurlin will be giving performances at the museum. Hurlin will perform on April 18 and Tierney on May 23.

Roman Paska noted that some puppeteers are found, meaning that they discovered puppetry as an art form while they were exploring other careers or types of performance, while some always knew they wanted to work with puppets.

The discussion was moderated by Leslee Asch, who worked curated the exhibit and worked with Jim Henson Productions for 20 years. The Katonah Museum of Art approached her to do an exhibit of contemporary puppetry several years ago, Asch noted. Works by Hurlin, Tierney and Paska are featured in the show, which also features puppets by Julie Taymor and Mabou Mines. Three puppetry films are on view.

The exhibit includes several large displays of puppets. Some are accompanied by video installations showing the displayed puppets in performance. "I wanted to make sure that people had the opportunity to see these things come to life," said Asch.

"It's fascinating to see the evolution of contemporary puppetry," said Carol Fineberg of Manhattan, who had come to hear the discussion. With the tools and techniques of puppetry, you can see the imagination at work. "You are totally engaged in this imaginary world," she said.

The discussion is part of the museum's current exhibit, "The Art of Contemporary Puppet Theater." The exhibit will run through June 13. The museum is located at 134 Jay Street (Route 22) in Katonah.