Puppet Place in Bristol recently did an interview with Corina Duyn, facilitator of the project.
It looks at her creative background, life with illness/disability and how all this lead to the
Life Outside the Box project and furhter puppet making adventures.
Abstract from the article related to Life Outside the Box
You can read the full story: Puppets and ME: An interview with Corina Duyn HERE
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"You have been very prolific as an artist in many mediums, painting & drawing, sculpture, writing and poetry, doll making and even weaving. How important are puppets to your work at the moment?
Very much so. Following on from the 6 months of work I did on the ‘Life Outside The Box’ project with the Irish Wheelchair Association, I was invited to speak at the ‘Broken Puppet’ Symposium on Puppets, Disability and Health at UCC in Cork. Our video has now been shown on Irish national TV and at the Disability Film Festival ‘Picture This’ in Canada. Attending the symposium was like stepping into a completely new world and yet when I entered it, and moved about with open eyes and ears, I realised I had been part of this amazing, creative, fun, healing, and astonishing place for pretty much all my life.
The engagement of people with disabilities with puppets, not only as a form of therapy, but as creators and artists in their own right is something that can be transformative. Listening to the stories and speakers at the event has only served to reinforce to me what a powerful, evocative and meaningful role puppets have played in peoples lives throughout the years and will continue to do so long into the future.
I have now returned to teaching puppet making, in small groups and by social media/email. Only for one and a half hours a week at the moment but what great fun it is. I am improving my ability to set my own limits to what I can do and enjoying finding ways to enable my students to work on their own puppets in my studio, or in their own homes. The healing effect of teaching puppet making is not something that might bring about a miraculous recovery from my illness, although one would be very welcome however it came about, but it is bringing a new energy into my life and who can say where that will lead.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us Corina. Is it puppets, puppets, puppets all the way now?
Absolutely. My return to teaching puppet making and the experience of the symposium and discussions around disability and health has created an energy and enthusiasm that will take me onto the next stage of my journey."
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| "Reflections" Puppets- project in progress. |
Further reading about Corina Duyn's current "Reflections" puppet project:
- Puppetry, as a reflecting on life with illness/disability
- The healing effects of teaching puppet making
- Collaboration with Dominic Fee
- To contact Corina about taking a puppet making class, please click HERE
- More about Life Outside the Box, please take a look through this blog.
Thank you for visiting, and please do let us know what your thoughts, and any questions.
