Neither/Nor
Commission for drag performer KILLABITE (website)
Once again, I find myself creating work that is hard to describe
Was this piece an animation? Was it theater? Like KILLABITE’s half-demon, half-human persona, this background video had a foot in more than one world
The frame I painted digitally using some wood textures, and animated over the footage to create the sliding doors. The leaves and face— digital drawings— were a kind of light-painting using a black-and-white matte as lighting information over the rice paper.
I went through a lot of prototypes to get exactly the right joints and silhouettes I needed— many of which never made it to the final puppet, either because they weren’t needed or because I found a simpler way to accomplish the same thing. The legs, for example, were originally designed to be able to flip direction, but I discovered later on that I could create the garment in such a way that it wouldn’t be necessary. This is always extremely helpful when pupeteering, as the more things you have to control at once the harder it is to get lifelike, emotive movement from your puppet.
The painting was actually an original painting by Javi Sanchez, the performer behind the persona of KILLABITE. I took the painting and animated it digitally, compositing that into the rest of the video.
The puppet is made of black cardstock, which I clothed using the same denim material as KILLABITE’s costume for the act. The joints on the puppet were made of copper wire, and the entire thing was rigged up to steel control rods. I patterned out “clothes” that were designed to cheat the silhouette of KILLABITE’s costume on a 2-dimensional form, but could still bend with the limbs in a realistic way. The tree is hand-cut from the same material as the puppet.
The painting was actually an original painting by Javi Sanchez, the performer behind the persona of KILLABITE. I took the painting and animated it digitally, compositing that into the rest of the video.
I used nearly every skill I have to create this piecec. The paper screen is a real sheet of rice paper that I rigged up and lit from behind, and all the shadows behind it are made with practical shadow puppetry that I shot in live action and then stitched together digitally. Everything else except the painting at the end was a composite— the leaves, the KILLABITE face, even the wooden screen frame over the rice paper.