Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century. Curated by Glen Helfand, May 16–August 18, 2024. Jewett Gallery, San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, California Ralphael Alexandre Chessé (“Ralph,” 1900–1991) creator of Brother Buzz, the long running children’s program that captivated San Francisco youth from 1952 to 1969, was a founding father of Bay Area puppetry. Through his company, his leadership in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s, and his teaching at San Francisco State College, Chessé played a key role in shaping puppetry in the region (see Bruce Chessé n.d., 2020; Ralph Chessé 1964, 1987; Fisler 2019, Comier with Foley 2022, …
Category: Exhibition Review
EXHIBITION REVIEW: Puppets: Expressions of Cultures
Puppets: Expressions of Cultures. Exhibition curated by Chen Wan-Ping, Lee Tai-Ling, Kuo Chao-Ling, and Fang Jiann-Neng. National Taiwan Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, December 31, 2024–August 31, 2025. On view at the National Taiwan Museum until August 31, 2025, the exhibition Puppets: Expressions of Cultures offers a glimpse into one of the world’s most comprehensive archives of puppetry arts and provides a rich, multifaceted journey through diverse performance traditions. Initially housed in the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theatre Museum, founded by Dr. Paul Lin, the collection was transferred to the National Taiwan Museum in 2020 after more than two decades of private stewardship. From a …
REPORT: “EUMMA and UNIMA-USA: Korean Traditional Puppet Deolmi International Workshop.”
June 2–5, 2025. Conducted by Eumma Gaengkkaeng (EUMMA), Seoul, South Korea.[1] Co-sponsored by UNIMA-USA and the University of California, Santa Cruz. An immersive workshop in Seoul, South Korea, organized in early June 2025 by members of theatre company EUMMA, led by master artist, Eum Dae-jin, introduced twelve foreign theatre practitioners to traditional Korean puppetry. Titled “Korean Traditional Puppet Deolmi International Workshop,” instruction focused on participants gaining a basic understanding of the history and significance of the traditional puppet theatre and allied performing arts of Korea, including drumming and mask dance-drama, as they carved and built their own traditional-style puppets and …
EXHIBITION REVIEW: The Calling: The Transformative Power of African American Doll and Puppet Making.
Kathy Foley The Calling: The Transformative Power of African American Doll and Puppet Making. Camila Bryce Laporte, curator, and Phyllis May-Machunda, curatorial consultant. City Lore Gallery. New York, NY. October 6, 2023 to March 3, 2024. This exhibit in a one-room space in New York’s East Village seems simple—dolls, soft sculpture figures, assemblage, quilts, and puppets by twenty-six contemporary Black artists juxtaposed in the gallery. Figures are arranged 1) to evoke the chronology of the African American diasporic experience and 2) to create dialogue about loss, trauma, and resilience. Doll making heals the spirit and builds community for these otherwise …
EXHIBITION REVIEW: Stillness, Silence, and Shadows: Indonesian Wayang Exhibit at Yale
Performance and Court in Indonesia. Asian Art Galleries, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. In Indonesia, wayang shadow puppets are presented to the audience in a dizzying swirl of sound and action. The dalang story-teller brings the artfully perforated puppets to life with deft manipulations of shadows that change shape to the shifting rhythms of a clanging gamelan orchestra. As the dalang sings, chants, jokes, and punctuates the dialogue with percussive clacks of a cempala, the characters interact with a rich array of human emotions. The puppets praise, seduce, flatter, betray, mock, and battle each other with gestures that …
