Invisible Connections
In 2009, Barking Spider Visual Theatre (BSVT) developed and created a community project called “Invisible Connections” at the invitation of Maz McGann, the Cultural Development Officer for the Rural City of Wangaratta. The project brief was for BSVT to create a static visual art installation which transformed into an object puppetry performance combining historical objects, local heritage stories and oral histories.
The installation was constructed in conjunction with, and puppetry/object theatre was performed by, the local Wang community. Through a series of workshops at the installation and performance venue and at the local dramatic society, we found a fantastically talented bunch people from the town to both create and perform with.
What did the Barking Spider Team Create?
BSVT created a multi-dimensional artwork installation, which remained in situ for seven days that emulated a museum experience of static displays. This installation was designed for the audience to become aware of, understand and explore a number of local historical stories. The stories and the installation site then transformed into the site of a promenade style performance, which employed object theatre, traditional puppetry and live actors.
What was the installation like?
After investigating a number of possible sites around Wangaratta to house the installation – including disused mail-rooms at the Wangaratta train station, a double-fronted old shop in the centre of town, a 4-story water tower from the 19th century and an emptied swimming pool, we built the installation into the hall adjacent to the new Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre.
The artwork installations were placed throughout the space on a series of five custom built tables, over each was suspended an illuminated white cloud of fabric (each of which became a shroud/curtain that lifted up and down via a pulley-system – unveiling each table during the performances). Each of the five tables told or represented a story.
During the installation, a range of both new and old objects, including donated ones, from the local community were incorporated into the display. BSVT also reproduced old objects/artefacts for both the installation and performances.
The entire installation room looked beautiful: a place of grace and of curiosity engaging children and adults alike.
Box Dioramas: Photographic Peep-Hole Installation
BSVT created an interactive set of dioramas, installed in a series of parcels and packages, all wrapped in brown paper and string, stamped and addressed, but never collected – as if abandoned in the bowels of the local post-office for many years.
On the outside of each peep-hole parcel (there were 6 in total) was an historic story from Wangaratta, re-told in the form of a letter and written in the style of the period in which the historical event depicted occurred. Within the peep-hole parcels, the audience could discover an interior lit, movable slot-puppet style 3-D diorama, created by using copies of existing historical photographs. Audience could not only view, but also play with these little re-created scenes, as they operated the slot puppets themselves.
These were delightful, full of both mystery and invitation, igniting joy and curiosity, and generating a playful and hands-on exploration of historical fact.
What were the performances like?
Invisible Connections encompassed several stories, connected by geographical location, and by the themes that emerged from research – isolation & community, hardship & striving, gain & loss. The stories were played out with objects as puppets, and also with one traditional, large-scale hand puppet.
On September 19th, 2009 the stories were presented through performance – bringing the installations to life. The installation items became set pieces and characters. Three puppeteers, Wang locals who had attended Object Theatre workshops operated the puppets. Breaking puppetry and theatrical convention, the puppeteers and all the crew were dressed in white, and in period-style costumes.
The audiences were guided around the space and between the stories by an actor-character, “Beatrice”. She came from 1949, and carried a basket of goodies bought at the Wangatta Co-Store. Beatrice delivered an object from her shopping basket to each of the playboards (table for puppetry), and the object then became the catalyst that sparked the unfolding of each puppetry-based story. Puppeteers appeared at each playboard to enact the story through the objects. Stories were narrated and pre-recorded by different voices, and were played through a sound system underscoring and complimenting the visual-theatre taking place.
The puppetry stories were top-&-tailed by interjectory tales spun by none other than Wangaratta’s larrakin hero, Jack Dick, who sat, lit, centre-stage on the stage area in front of the curtains. Jack Dick was represented by a large hand puppet, operated by one puppeteer from the Wangaratta community. Jack Dick’s tall stories acted as comic relief between each of the other five tales. Local, Mary Anderson, was instrumental in the construction of the puppet, working alongside Barking Spider artists in its creation.
Local members of the community had taken part in puppetry workshops and played roles as puppeteers in the performance. There was one acting role, the role of Beatrice, played by Lexi Aivaliotis, from the local Wangarratta high-school drama group. Lexi shone in this role – it demanded script-based performance as well as improvised character based audience interaction.
Prior to the commencement of performances, when entering the space, we felt as though we were entering an old house that had been closed up for the Summer – everything covered up for protection from dust and time. The space looked and felt very different to the exhibition site. During the performances, each draping curtain was raised via a pulley system, revealing each playboard, ready for the performance.
The audience was not seated – rather the performance was viewed “promenade style”. Audiences were guided by Beatrice to the various performance spaces as each story unfolded. Jack Dick, (large hand puppet) was seated on the stage, in his armchair, and he’d nod-off in-between his interjectory tales as the five stories were played out. Jack spun seven incredible tales throughout each performance.
Each playboard had its own lighting: clamped table lamps for specific puppet lighting, and an overhead light hidden within each white draping curtain. The windows in the hall and backstage were blocked out so the light sources were controllable and the overall atmosphere of the entire space was created.
Each playboard was constructed like a little like a shallow, custom-built sandpit. Instead of sand, each sandpit contained a different “element”, which related to each different historical story: scoria, river-mud, bush-earth, sugar crystals and wheat grains. On top of the element in each sandpit sat the objects of the installation and from this set-up the object puppetry took place.
There were five stories presented on the playboards: Some of these stories were not famous, but they represented a thread in the great carpet of local Wangaratta history – they represented a feeling, a time, an unsung voice or experience that enriched the local history and has played a part in defining and shaping the culture of Wangaratta. Some stories were well known, and some less so, but despite research, in some cases there was question over historical fact – creating intrigue: the seed of local folklore. The five stories traversed the years from 1856 to 1972 sequentially. At the end of the play, Beatrice invited the audience to come to the box dioramas photographic peep-hole Installation. It was wonderful to watch people – families – go to the dioramas and play, after seeing the performances. There was a hushed, concentrated, sense of wonder “feel” to this part of each performance, interjected with squeals of delight and the sound of children playing on and around the performance site.
The hour spent in an Invisible Connections performance was one where, through the stories and visual representations, the audience experienced great humour, combined with tragedy & loss, mystery, compassion, understanding, heart and a sense of what the Wangaratta community is, through reflection of how the community has evolved.
Whether you came to the installation, or to the performance, or to both
the experience of Invisible Connections was magical: objects coming to life in an environment that was beautiful and inspired awe, all generated from stories and history that belong to Wangaratta.
Photos