Life outside the box
Life outside the box
Puppet Project
Created by members of the Irish Wheelchair Association’s Dungarvan Resource Centre.
Facilitated by Artist and Writer Corina Duyn
Supported by
To read about the making of this book visit: http://lifeoutsidethebox-puppetproject.blogspot.com
For more information on Corinas works visit www.corinaduyn.com
INTRODUCTION
I would like to start by expressing how immensly proud I am of all the participants in this project.
Although a member of the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) for some time, I only started attending their Dungarvan Resource Centre in September 2014. Staff assisted me there with making my figurative sculptures. Fellow members and staff expressed interest in my work, and in early 2015 I was asked by staff if I could ‘by any chance’ facilitate the creation of a series of puppets and a puppet show...? Being awarded the Create - Artist in the Community Scheme, funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, made this happen.
Our Monday group consists of about ten members between the ages of 27 to 73. We are living with limited/partial mobility, congenital physical disabilities, long term illness, or acquired brain injuries. Most of these conditions are also impacting on our finer motor skills. Talking about a puppet project - consisting of the creation of puppets and props; writing a story; publishing a ‘fly on the wall’ booklet about the process; making a film and hosting an exhibition, we looked at the logistics - who was interested to work with clay; what tools needed to be adapted; who could take photographs, what the general story might be... The overall mood was one of excitement. And that was only the start of it!
We met every Monday to work on the puppets. Starting with a stick and a strip of cotton, we made the bases for the heads. Over the following six months the puppets took on their ultimate personalities, and their story became clear to us. Their story - Our story. Society would like to put us in a ‘box’. The Disability Box. Our thoughts: Step out of the box and you are free.
The fun we had during this project, I will never forget. The enthusiasm and hunger for exploring the next step of the process never ceased. I am deeply humbled by the experience.
We all had IWA staff to support us in whatever way necessary, including myself. The IWA setting has given me the courage to go back to teaching.
With this Life Outside The Box book and the short film, we hope that you will taste a little (or a lot) of the fun we had, and enjoy the amazing work created. At the same time we hope to get the message out, throught the puppet’s adventures, that yes- we are living with a disability, but we are still very much part of society!
January 2016
Project facilitator Corina Duyn
December 2015
I had been given the task of note-taker for the project.
This project has been the most inclusive, filled with fun and laughter and most of all creation of a puppet from the start of a piece of clay to the making of clothes. Everybody was involved - from making the box, sewing, photographing, cutting wood, making ‘sausages’, blowing dust, gluing balls of wool, to getting high on varnish.
The comments that were made while the puppets were a work in progress were so funny that I can’t repeat/write about them as they would have to be censored. Some of the more acceptable ones:
Miriam: “Mine looks like a monster, it only has one eye.”
Pat: “This puppet has a thick head.”
Corina: “Your head is quite big Tracey. I don’t mean your head, I mean the puppet’s.”
Caroline is blessing Amy’s puppet.
John decides to add a hair-piece to his head – literally.
Paul is painting his hat black.
Ann was having difficulty making her second foot – she thinks it may have arthritis.
Mark does so much talking I wonder if he would finish his puppet. Sarah’s puppet was created with her passion in mind- a baker.
Chris the workaholic hasn’t stopped working. “I would like a bigger mouth.”
Gunter has decided to sit things out and is just observing for the moment. Billy- working on the big hand: “I am good at this!”
Colin gets his nails painted by Amy, instead of the puppet’s.
The wonderful outcome of all of this is that no two puppets are to same. Each and every one of them is taking on a life of their own. Ann’s a little graceful old lady, Miriam’s a monk. Paul’s an office clerk. Sarah’s a baker. Mark’s a biker. John’s an Urchin boy. Amy’s a lady with a butterfly. Pat’s a musician.
It is amazing to see what can be created by a group of people who just wanted to have fun for a few hours every Monday.
A special thanks to Corina, for suggesting this project. Without her this project would not have taken place. The group followed her instructions step-by-step, apart from Tracey who put her nose on upside down – we had such a laugh.
The project’s outcome is a reflection of how good our teacher Corina is, and there were plenty of happy faces when Mariela came to photograph us with the puppets. Thank you Corina.
Also, a special thanks to all the staff members who supported each individual in the making of their puppet. To Chris who now must realise that the puppet she was helping to make was for John and not herself… She became so attached to the puppet that she will find it hard to part with it.
And now as we have come to the end of this project, it is time to select a project name, and like the butterfly, it will take flight and see where it will go from here: the creation of this book, a short film or Hollywood!!!
Margaret Ann
This project was a great success for all. After the first talk of it I was not so sure, but as the weeks passed and we all worked together under the instructions of Corina, and as the puppets started to be put together the joy they brought to all was great. I would recommend this project to anyone to try.
Paul
THE CLERK’S ADVICE IS TO NOT LET HIM
COME CALLING AT YOUR DOOR.
My puppet is a baker which symbolises for me my interest in baking as a hobby. I picked bright colours to reflect the happiness I feel when baking.
This was a totally new project for me to undertake. I am not a crafty person, but I really enjoyed this project. I was afraid at first to work with the clay but soon enjoyed it. It gave me the opportunity to learn new skills and open my horizons. It build up my confidence in relation to working in a group. The group were all so helpful and we all got to share our skills with each other.
Overall this was a brilliant project and it allowed me to gel into a new group.
Music is part of my life. I played the button key accordion since the age of fifteen. My first tune was an old Irish Hymn.
I immensly enjoyed the past six months of making the puppets, the hands, the feet, ... getting the elbows right. They changed from aliens into fine looking puppets.
Pat
Being yourself is something that is extremely important to me. I do not believe we should allow our situation/circumstances to define us. There are so many things in life we can’t change or have a choice in, i.e. disability, but we can all absolutely choose the way we feel about ourselves, the view we have of the world around us and also how we allow others to influence our lives.
The butterfly holds very significant meaning to me as in it I see a sense of freedom. We all need to feel free to be ourselves. Also the beauty of a butterfly having transformed from a caterpillar reminds me that in life we all go through dark painful times but we can re-emerge a stronger, more beautiful version of ourselves.
Amy
Miriam
Roads don’t always run smoothly and often it is the journey and the experience of overcoming difficulties that’s more important than the destination.
The puppet making was a new challenge for me, it was something I’d never done before and thought I wouldn’t be able to from both a creative and physical approach. As I began working on them, initially with uncertainty I found that with encouragement, instruction and working in a fun environment I was able to do more than I ever thought. Things that may have been mistakes, turned into inspiration and drove my work and ideas of what my puppet’s story would be in a new direction. This was vital to giving him his character.
Mark
Never too Old to Learn - How True!!!!
Thanks to Corina’s enthusiasm, teaching and guidance I made a Puppet from scratch! It started by looking like an Alien, progressed to a terrorist, and ended up an elderly lady with attitude - and a Handbag Dog. I never had so much fun making anything. What will the next project be??
Ann
I really enjoyed rolling the clay while Christine made our puppet. We had a few accidents along the way with broken fingers and a broken leg, but Ollie is healthy again. His dog is called Buddy. When we picked out hair for our puppets, I found a piece that was perfect for the puppet, ... and for me!
John
I was asked to assist John in creating his puppet and at times got so carried away with working on it I had to remember this was John’s design and I was only there to assist. This project in itself was really good for John to work on because over the months it has kept him focused and he was always there with me working to create our project.
Chris
I was comfortable making paper maché as I worked with that before, and have taken my time and effort to paint the hand. I am very aware that the hand has an important part in the puppet project as it is one of the first things seen in the video. It releases the puppets from the Big Box!
Billy
It was a weekly joy to see my fellow IWA members rise to the challenge to create puppets from scratch. There were many astonishing and beautiful moment where believes of inabilities were overcome and became sources of inspiration; where characters appeared from under our hands - seemingly with fierce determination to be ‘born’ with their own story to tell.
The laughter we had along the way is something that deserves to be bottled and prescribed to be taken on a daily basis. The world would be a better place. My deepest thanks to all the participants for their infectious enthusiasm!
Acknowledgements/Credits
Project facilitator
Corina Duyn
Puppets Ann O’Grady, Pat Coffey, Amy Fitzgerald, Mark Foley, Sarah Lennon, John McGrath/Christine Baker, Miriam Hennebry, Paul Coolbear, Corina Duyn
Hand Billy McLawrence, Corina Duyn
Box Gunter Wunderlich (Escape Artist), Michael Whelan, and others
Note Taker
Margaret Ann Foley
Photography
Paul Coolbear, Corina Duyn, Mariela Martin
Graphic design Corina Duyn
Cover David Murphy - Red Heaven Design. Cover image still from video
Filming
Alan O’Callaghan - The Bootleg Studios
Printing City Print Cork
DVD Duplication All Write Media
Support
Andrea Lloyd (Service coordinator). IWA staff who were most involved: Miriam Hennebry, Christine Baker, Tracey Sheridan, Colin Walsh, Nicky Hannigan, and Caroline Lacey. Other Volunteers: Karen Frizzele, Ina Duyn.
With thanks to the Arts Council/Create- Artist in the Community Scheme, and Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA)- Dungarvan Resource Centre for making this project happen; Dungarvan Shopping Centre for allowing us to film there and to Dungarvan Public Library for hosting the first exhibition and launch of the book and DVD.
www.create-ireland.ie www.corinaduyn.com www.iwa.ie
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/Kv80lXXrgWc?is=HblMvoeidBF_XzzR
Life Outside The Box
In June 2015, we – members of IWA’s Dungarvan Resource Centre - embarked on a puppet-making project. Under the guidance of fellow member, artist and writer Corina Duyn, we created not just puppets, but puppets intent on going on a journey.
The nine characters that emerged represent our group living life within our communities, by stepping out of Society’s Disability Box! With this scrapbook and accompanying short film, we hope that you will taste a little (or a lot) of the fun we had, and join us on our journey.
Proceeds from the book will fund further art project, or future adventures with our puppets.
