SWAMP
Snuff Puppets
Snuff Puppets’ newest work SWAMP is an oily primordial muck, where life begins with blood and ends with ash.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
A Mosquito, Magpie, Lyrebird, Koala, Snake and Frilled-Neck Lizard each eke out their quiet lives. A Thylacine paces back and forth. A dormant whirlpool begins to swirl, descending into a world of dust and blood, water and flame, strangled trees, dissolved skin, pools of tears, blankets of bones. The Serpent consumes the scene, and then itself. Whether it’s a cycle or an ending is up to us.
SWAMP blends Snuff Puppets’ renowned handmade aesthetic, irreverent performance style and dynamic use of music with live projection mapping and scratchy, illustrative set design. The result is a darkly comic allegory of violent transformation on the cusp of the Anthropocene.
“Hysterical yet debauched celebration of the human body” – Arts Hub
“In an age defined by digital spectacle, there is a renewed sense of wonder in these handcrafted illusions, as joyously distasteful as they may be” – The Age
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Snuff Puppets is a community of Melbourne-based artists, artisans and performers dedicated to the art and craft of giant puppet making and the theatre of puppetry. Since 1992, Snuff Puppets has been unleashing its giant puppet spectacles on millions of people worldwide. Our work is a collision of visual art, sculpture, design, engineering, sound, movement, performance and physical theatre. At the heart is our giant puppets – sometimes gorgeous; sometimes grotesque – and the unpredictable ways they are brought to life.
Snuff Puppets’ lo-fi, spontaneous, collaborative, devised, quick, experimental approach inspires creativity and allows us to leave behind the legacy of our art form and our approach in remote, off-the-beaten-track destinations globally. Snuff Puppets are ambassadors for a distinctive and recognisable Australian culture.
CONTACTS
Lauren Bok
Producer
lauren@snuffpuppets.com
+61 3 9687 9133
