Four Studio A artists, in partnership with Live Softly (a social enterprise that hires neurodiverse artisans in Nepal), designed a unique Australian menagerie in felt — a range of native bird and mammal finger puppets. The hand-sewn, wooly works were quickly scooped up by buyers on our web shop and via our stockists, the Australian Design Centre and Koskela.
Meagan Pelham gave us Two Love Birds, Skye Saxon with Bilby & Baby Bilby, Damian Showyin with Pink Galah and Lisa Scott with Yellow & Red Tail Black Cockatoos and Bush Turkey. One finds, in each kindred creature, the flair and fingerprints of its maker. Meagan - the guru of love - appears in her lorikeets’ crimson feathers. Lisa’s midnight-black cockatoos take after, perhaps, her broader interest in the ‘shadowy areas’ of story telling.
The puppets were, of course, inconceivable without the material support of the Kathmandu-based craftspeople. Though the construction chain spanned oceans, a close rapport was established between our artists and theirs. On video, we can see the delight on the artists’ faces when they see their creations being made in Nepal.
Thom Roberts presented his first solo exhibition, The Immersive World of Thom Roberts, at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
