story hive theatre
In previous blogs I’ve described the arrival of the bee hive theatre in a dream.
Future Gazing — Jennifer Medlicott
https://jennifermedlicott.com/module-art723/future-gazing
I am at the start of a journey here with perhaps with the seeds of skills I will need to realise my vision but certainly not developed sufficiently to step immediately in to the possibilities. The brood box is a compromise so that I can make something of interest for this module, I think it can go much further with the whole of a hive at a later stage. Velvet curtains are the starting place in the imaginings. The fact that from 4 roman blinds, themselves made out of curtains found for £3 in a charity shop, that were mostly re-distributed when my business : Land of Milk and Honey closed due to COVID, all that remained were three scraps of fabric. Trying these out against the box they were pretty much a perfect fit for curtains, pelmet and edging - a bit of a squeeze - so none at all remains, wholly re-purposed now.
Woodworking — Jennifer Medlicott
https://jennifermedlicott.com/module-art723/woodworking
This blog describes some of the construction.
Conceptually, this open square table top space has scope to trial many forms of puppetry. The only skills in that regard I start with is the making of dolly peg characters. So because of the time available to me to construct a hive and tell a story - I choose to start here and buy some dolly pegs. I’m conscious there is limited scope for animation with a dolly peg whose features and limbs will be static but also aware these are quickly made and individualised. They will suit some early experimental workshops for people to tell a story with beginner puppetry skills like me. Perhaps films will emerge in this way - imagination will be the means of improving the experience for audience and puppeteer. I feel there is also scope for shadow puppetry in this small box perhaps through wax foundation if I can get the light and the thickness right. My imaginings extend to the experience of making honey ice-cream to sell and maybe honeyed popcorn. Then I think I need a logo to put on little pots, so I make one with the help of AI. Refining and refining with the idea of a simple box, the dollypegs and the yellow velvet curtains.
Shortly after mom died and we were clearing her apartment, I visited Ruthin Craft Centre for some lunch on the way to the tip. I sat in the garden gazing abscent mindedly through the window of the exhibition space - seeing little houses and moths. I couldn’t face going in that day, I don’t know why. I was a little disappointed that I hadn’t when I spoke to Yadzia, who suggested there was a relevance to the work I was embarking on. Artist Becky Adams had created a back story for the exhibition ‘A Curious Tale’ culminating with The Grand Moth’s Ball. The story was told in poetic form. Strangely the influences in this poem seemed to relate to my life in many ways and I realised the Indian palace that was the inspiration for the ball setting was one I’d seen on my honeymoon in Rajasthan, India some 20 years before - the timescale Becky mentions. Becky uses thrown away objects. In the heuristic approach to research I was delighted to discover, this feels like a sign to me to confirm that my intuition is good and that I am connected to something I might call source.
Meanwhile, I now have my dolly pegs and creation is calling. I know that I need to do then in the studio and I don’t have much to hand, fabrics or threads, I mooch through all I have and the gold leaf speaks to me. Those touches of gold that have been in my work since the module started. I also find blue wool and dried hawthorne berries these are the basis for my character. Hawthorne is traditionally used as a heart remedy - so I knew my character had a broken heart of some kind. Gold is used in the Japanese art of Kinsukuroi - golden repair. I did the head of the dolly peg in wax, I make arms from part of the wax frame that joins and looks partly like a hand and dress her in gold leaf. She reminds me of the story of King Midas - everything he touches turns to gold and he ends up very lonely. I had the blue wool for hair and blue poppy seeds for eyes - to ease the pain of her gold making gaze. A tiny piece of hibiscus flower for lips. The blue makes sense later when I realise part of her back story is that she has been made from an alchemist’s fire out of Preseli blue stone at the time this stone arrived to make the inner Stone Henge circle. I call her Calon Aur (Heart of Gold).
Dolly peg characters made for Fairy Trail at Pengwern Community Centre August 2023.
