Yesterday HWD and I drove down to Red Wing, MN with his elder daughter and a family friend who is a neighbor of his ex. I got to see the ex's house for the first time when I met HWD and elder daughter there (he's been spending the night there on and off, since the ex is still overseas). The ex's house is in a fantastic location, half a block from the big St. Croix river. But it's an odd little neighborhood of small, old, cottage type houses, many very run down. Including the ex's house. Looked pretty horrible from the outside, didn't have the opportunity to see the inside (and that's OK). I think she inherited the house from her father so at least it's free?
Anyway, there's a gallery in Red Wing that is currently displaying puppets from the Minnesota puppet scene. Which is surprisingly active. The main player I was aware of is the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, which for a very long time sponsored an annual May Day parade. But there are lots of other artists too.
They had a video playing with quite an extended tribute to one of the big local puppet artists who died a couple of years ago. Just seeing the pictures of him and his work made me sorry that I will never get a chance to meet him. HWD said, "he had a big personality, and he actually could be kind of a giant asshole, but he made it really easy to forgive him".
Here's some of the works that were in the show:
After spending some time there, we drove over to the Cambodian Temple that's out in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty sure I've posted pictures of it previously, but I'll throw one in the comments. It's quite surreal that this elaborate temple is in the middle of farm fields. Elder daughter enjoyed seeing it, since she had been in Thailand recently.
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There is a lot of interest in puppets these days and the life size ones are very good although I thought the Prince one was more recognizable than the Bowie one, I was expecting to see one of the Tyrant in a Toupee.
I know a local troupe called BareBones constructed one that was just a giant eyeball with a thatch of orange hair on top.
(tried to see if I could find an image of it online, but no luck)
Very interesting post. Thank you.
These are definitely not the kid puppets I, and perhaps most people, think of when puppets are mentioned.
Sending you big hugs.
I wonder what it’s like walking through the gallery at night when it’s dark and quiet? 🤔
Spooky, no doubt!
Amazing! When you originally told us about puppets, I was picturing cutesy, fuzzy, kid type puppets. These are just incredible. Not sock puppets at all. I am impressed.
Hugs!!
Yes, a lot of the May Day puppets are super sized and require multiple people to operate them… 😊
What, no Paul Bunyan puppet?
I guess there’s no need for a puppet when we have multiple large statues of him scattered around. 😊
@smartasswoman In travel plans this summer I am planning to go to Bemidji
I love a puppet show though I haven't been to one for some time.
I really like the mephistopheles one.
They had video of him in action in a performance, and he was quite effectively scary!
I gotta admit, they're pretty creepy looking to me.... Glad you had fun tho!!
I think a couple of the creators have a particular "aesthetic" that has sort of spread through the puppet community. Eerie is the word I would use for most of them, although yes, Mephistopheles is creepy.
Now I'm considering what happens with the very active MN puppet scene intersects with the very active MN BDSM scene. 😮
Well, Punch and Judy were well known for beating on each other!
The Watt Munisotaram.
OMG I forgot to include this one! So instantly recognizable, haha.
@CarriedBack if we had had time I would have like to have hiked Barn Bluff...