28 November, 2006

Lara Greene




The Ape is a large Puppet/Autonoma, trapped by his strings whilst also dependent on them to bring him to life... a sad but comical character. The controls are quite complex but built from basic and found materials: wood, scrap metal, bike and boating parts. They pivot from the beams, reaching out to four corners of the room: points at which a team of four people can push, pull or twist handles and turn wheels to control the head, arms and the back. The Ape"s figure is very expressive and we can express ourselves with him. Meeting him is far from the separated experience of many gallery exhibitions. Visitors are encouraged to share activating him with others. The resulting interactions were an exploration of control/dependency, power/intimidation, humour, mimicry, and group co-ordination/discord, challenging our notions of being an independent entity, that which the ape has never conceived of.

ape movie

http://www.laragreene.com/


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