Monday 15 September 2014

Marionette Gallery 16 - The veteran in a wheelchair

War is a messy business. The heroes are dead and the survivors continue with mental and physical scars that come home with them. Growing up in the 50s there were enough WW2 veterans you could see in the streets. In wheelchairs like my grandfather, not the fast zippy hightech ones of today, but cumbersome vehicles of wood and steel. The old prosthesis and crutches left a legacy with me. Years later this figure emerged. Covered with the old blankets one hand missing and half the face gone. Or is it only a symbol for the inner pain? The fingers make the victory sign, still alive and wont give up.
Technically it is a rod marionette and it can be wheeled at enormous speed across the stage. As the wheels turn the hands go back and forth it conjures up a multitude of emotions in the audience. He was part of Fading Memories, a show of forgetting and not forgetting. Though wanted to put him in some standard role so he gets more acting time for himself.

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