Lorna Irvine speaks with the creative minds behind A Horse of a Different Colour.
Scottish performer and animator Calum MacAskill's work straddles physical theatre, puppetry and a certain amount of bouffon. With previous pieces such as Minotaur: Monitor and Faust/Us exploring mythological and classic texts using multimedia, his aesthetic is both dark and playful.
This time around, however, he is tapping into the more playful side of his personality in a collaboration with fellow artist Ammie Jay for Puppet Animation Scotland, with the working title A Horse of a Different Colour.
A distinctly DIY approach to puppetry is key here: a horse is both deconstructed—in a very real sense, with a monologue on how we perceive the beasts—and assembled (using household items such as lamp, bucket and mop) as a working mechanical model in front of the audience. This homemade quality is cleverly juxtaposed with more sophisticated tech: sound loops, lighting and kaleidoscopic colour projection, which becomes an interactive experience, asking the audience to respond to, ''what colour is the sound of a horse?"
The props themselves have taken around a month to be constructed and painted, but the initial idea has been around much longer. MacAskill explains: ‘I first came up with the idea in January and have been researching and developing it since... We wanted to explore synaesthesia (the neurological perceptual condition where senses are mixed, eg 'tasting' words like flavours, or seeing musical notes as colours) and combine sound and visuals, evoking the strength and power of horses.’
Ammie Jay, who McAskill has previously worked with before, adds: ‘We are taking it down to every single element [the anatomy of a horse is projected onto the puppet]. It starts off with domestic objects and builds into something more complex.’
Not surprisingly, this inventive piece has been taken to some of the most discerning critics around: school children. Primary school kids at Kinning Park Complex have been treated to a performance and will doubtless find inspiration from it, creating new worlds from scratch.
Once complete, MacAskill and Jay hope to expand upon it—certainly, the concept is already a winning formula; witty, intelligent and much healthier than the contents of a supermarket burger!
For more information, go to: www.puppetanimation.org
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