For six weeks from 12 April until 31 May, Grundy Art Gallery was taken over and transformed into a ‘puppet state’. Puppet Show examines how artists have explored the particular qualities of puppets, drawing out their capacity to function as impersonators, impostors and generally dubious characters; who at once criticise, debase, mock, undermine or protest – who say things or act in ways that humans often find inhibiting.
In Puppet Show, Grundy Art Gallery is brought to life, speaking what cannot be said through the mouthpiece of its transient puppet population.
Puppet Show was conceived at Eastside Projects in Birmingham in 2013 and is curated by artists Tom Bloor and Céline Condorelli. Its re-staging at the Grundy Art Gallery built on a long association with puppetry both at the Grundy and in Blackpool.
Puppet Show features works by;
Edwina Ashton / Lisa Brice / Marvin Gaye Chetwynd / Céline Condorelli / Pierre Huyghe / Dan Graham with Japanther, Rodney Graham and Tony Oursler / Heather & Ivan Morison / Alexander Calder / Pier Paolo Pasolini / Simon Popper / Pedro Reyes / Simon Starling / Jiří Trnka.