A UNIQUE cultural project opens in Scotland this week offering the public a Covid-safe arts experience post lockdown.
Opening in Edinburgh on Wednesday before moving to Aberdeen and Glasgow, Restless Worlds is an outdoor installation and artwalk from Puppet Animation Scotland.
Part of the Manipulate Festival, Restless Worlds had to be postponed because of the recent lockdown but will now be displayed in the windows of Edinburgh’s Lyceum before moving to Aberdeen to be presented as a multi-venue artwalk from May 6-16. It will then move to Glasgow.
Inspired by Boccaccio’s 1353 novel The Decameron, where 10 strangers shelter together in hiding from the Plague and get through the quarantine by telling each other stories, the eight new imaginary worlds have been created by some of Scotland’s leading puppeteers, sculptors and animators.
“Restless Worlds was born out of a desire to utilise the extraordinary skills and vision of our community of artists to create a unique cultural experience for Scottish audiences during the pandemic,” said Puppet Animation Scotland’s director Dawn Taylor.
“After so long without access to theatres and galleries, Restless Worlds offers audiences a really distinctive Covid-safe arts experience – part exhibition, part storytelling and something you can enjoy at your own pace as you wander around the city.
“We are so excited to finally be able to share these works with the public after having to postpone our original plans due to the lockdown.”
The installation features eight leading Scottish artists and emerging voices commissioned to create stories combining moving sculpture works for windows and soundscapes around each city.
“The sculptures and artwork are extraordinary and take in some iconic locations around the city so we are looking forward to sharing them,” said Aberdeen Performing Arts director of programming and creative projects Ben Torrie.
“After such a difficult year, we’re looking forward to bringing some much-needed joy and offering something for everyone to look forward to.
“We are delighted to be part of the Manipulate Festival’s Restless Worlds project and are sure those in the north-east will take great enjoyment from the sculpture trail.”
The artists include sculptor, puppet-maker and designer Guy Bishop who will present The Diktat Synthesizer – a curious machine generating regulations governing social behaviour in the era of Covid-19 using wheels and life-size figures.
Multi-award winning Scottish theatre-makers, designers and puppeteers Shona Reppe and Tamlin Wiltshire will contribute Still Life with Willow Pattern, an intricate hospital for broken things made whole through Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing objects with gold lacquer.
SHARMANKA Kinetic Theatre and novelist Heather Parry will explore the classically gothic themes of isolation, love and the loss of innocence with Apple Eaters, a creative fusion of work featuring music by Brian Irvine and vocal performance by Kirsty Logan, while theatre practitioner Gavin Glover will present a cabinet of curious journeys and impossible science in A Rock And A Hard Place.
Puppeteer and multidisciplinary artist Jessica Innes will show Mr Holdcroft, a specially designed living room and animated film of an elderly puppet combating isolation.
Meanwhile Scotland-based Canadian visual artist Samuel Watterworth will challenge viewers’ perceptions of self, presence and connection by pulling them into the installation Here.We’re Not, with interactive visuals and found audio from radio frequencies around the world.
Filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Lucas Chih-Peng Kao and visual artist, puppeteer and theatre maker Katanari will offer a peek into a curious collection of imaginary beings from the past or the future with Creaturium: The Lost Ones, while visual artist Chell Young will use a scale model and the timeless Renaissance architecture of Florence to demonstrate deceit and disinformation in the present day with Trials Of Bliss.
On buying a ticket, audiences will gain access to Audio or BSL files streamed directly to their phones, along with a guide to the artwork locations so they can discover the moving worlds.
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