trapped in a coffin with nothing to do...
mixed media installation & puppets,
Intermedia Gallery, CCA: Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow 2023
trapped in a coffin with nothing to do... was a recent installation. With the help of community and puppetry, the exhibition speculated on visions of future hometowns, families, loves, demons, and pals.
The interactive installation was an imagining of a forgotten puppet show that takes place in and around ruined castle grounds, set in the year 2066, in the fictional town of Heldham, Angelshireland. The puppet show has been abandoned due to a mass puppeteer revolt. The show was full of knackered puppets (to be reanimated by the exhibition’s audience, becoming the puppeteer), in which several characters together attempt to break up with the main character, the Castle.
An example of some of the characters that were included in the show are: Castle; Castle Babe; The Chimneys; The Hands of G’rem; Townsfolk; and a cult made up of Freshly Baked Revolutionary Village Bread.
Puppets have a 'life of their own', and Cheetham is interested in how puppet play is used in theatrical, political, and therapeutic contexts, and how it can be used as an alternative mode of communication through roleplay as a treatment for trauma.
The interactive installation was an imagining of a forgotten puppet show that takes place in and around ruined castle grounds, set in the year 2066, in the fictional town of Heldham, Angelshireland. The puppet show has been abandoned due to a mass puppeteer revolt. The show was full of knackered puppets (to be reanimated by the exhibition’s audience, becoming the puppeteer), in which several characters together attempt to break up with the main character, the Castle.
An example of some of the characters that were included in the show are: Castle; Castle Babe; The Chimneys; The Hands of G’rem; Townsfolk; and a cult made up of Freshly Baked Revolutionary Village Bread.
Puppets have a 'life of their own', and Cheetham is interested in how puppet play is used in theatrical, political, and therapeutic contexts, and how it can be used as an alternative mode of communication through roleplay as a treatment for trauma.
Puppet/Making Workshop (with Debi Banerjee)
Schools Programme - Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Edinburgh 2022
THE (re)HEARSE
single channel video (29:51 mins)
CCA Annexe, Online 2023/2024: https://cca-annex.net/entry/the-rehearse/
THE (re)HEARSE is an informal and personal non-/performance film created during Cheetham’s CCA: Intermedia Gallery project, trapped in a coffin with nothing to do…, which ran from August 18 to September 2, 2023.
This candid and revealing film shows Cheetham rehearsing and performing the exhibition’s narrative with puppets, experimenting with character development and exploring perceptions of rehearsal. The film captures Cheetham in front of the camera (with Alex Sarkisian behind it), as they both engage with and warm up to the show’s themes and characters. Together, they begin to incorporate elements of ‘psychodrama’ into the project, blending informal personal performance with the idea of non-performance.
The film begins to imagine a forgotten puppet show that takes place in and around ruined castle grounds, set in the year 2066, in the fictional town of Heldham, Angelshireland. The puppet show has been abandoned due to a mass puppeteer revolt. Meanwhile several characters together attempt to break up with the main character, the Castle.
This candid and revealing film shows Cheetham rehearsing and performing the exhibition’s narrative with puppets, experimenting with character development and exploring perceptions of rehearsal. The film captures Cheetham in front of the camera (with Alex Sarkisian behind it), as they both engage with and warm up to the show’s themes and characters. Together, they begin to incorporate elements of ‘psychodrama’ into the project, blending informal personal performance with the idea of non-performance.
The film begins to imagine a forgotten puppet show that takes place in and around ruined castle grounds, set in the year 2066, in the fictional town of Heldham, Angelshireland. The puppet show has been abandoned due to a mass puppeteer revolt. Meanwhile several characters together attempt to break up with the main character, the Castle.
cview
telescope & polyurethane foam, wood, metal, acrylic paint,
Gallery Celine + rooftop, Glasgow 2020-2024
cview examined potential and on-going failures of its creators through the reimagining of certain consumer-driven fantasised moments. It was rooted in contemplations around consumer cultures, labours, and legacies. It also incorporates expanded forms of caricature and cartooning, primarily based on Jacky himself, and a failed castle and ostentatious structure created by a historic industrialist family that overlooks his hometown in the East Midlands of England. Realised as a potential mode of personifying, exhausting, and evaporating the effects that objects and materials can have on people and their communities over time.
Bred
polyurethane resin, polyurethane foam, acrylic paint, glass eyes.
Glasgow International - Garnethill Stores, inside a chilled food & drinks fridge, Glasgow 2018
Free Parking
figure: silicone, pigment, oil paint, wood, fibreglass, duct tape, wadding, polyurethane foam, aluminum wire, steel rod, human hair, artificial hair, clothing, boots. vehicle: Ford Focus 2007 1.6 ZETEC with evolving car litter/paraphernalia.
Glasgow International - Bill’s Tool Store customer car park, Glasgow 2018
This sculpture 'Free Parking' was first presented in the customer car park of Bill’s Tools Store in The Barras of Glasgow’s east end. It depicted a figure resembling actor John Goodman snoozing inside a used car. The scene existed during the tool shop’s opening times for the three weeks of Glasgow International festival.
Bred
digital fabric prints, wood, formed styrolux plastic, polyurethane foam, digital vinyl print - over billboard.
Bloc Projects - Jessop Street, Sheffield 2018
This commission developed with Bloc Projects explored the psychological relationship between loneliness and anthropomorphism, in connection to consumerist desires. The billboard based work compared anthropomorphic elements found in fantasy film sets to narratives related to mentalities of growing up and living in a UK city context. And asked the question, can these ‘objects/characters’ tell us anything about the current state of our social and political imaginations, desires and fears.
Jug (Props)
glazed earthenware ceramic
Various Exhibitions and Projects 2014/ongoing
Legal & General.
cast silicone, chainmail, key rings, hair, toothpick
Curfew Gallery, Edinburgh 2019
I Love To Travel
chainmail, keyrings, wood, brass hook
Curfew Gallery, Edinburgh 2019
Jay (Heart Puppet)
cast silicone, pigment, glass eyes
Curfew Gallery, Edinburgh 2019
The Birthday
wax (birthday candles), wood, metal
VOIDOIDArchive, Glasgow 2016
GEST
Jesmonite, polystyrene, acrylic, wood
Broomhill Sculpture Park, Devon 2018
Ⓒ COPYRIGHT JACKY CHEETHAM STUDIO