Waltz of Life 2.1

280 × 160 cm as maximum size pro puppet
Acryl, Lacquer, Medium and Pigment on Panel.

These pieces also contain a (in)visible story or scenario. One sees three puppets who embody a waltz of life.

The first figure is Peter Pan, who embodies childhood. Peter Pan refers to another series I made about Grass’s Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum), in which the protagonist, Oskar Matzerath, also a character who refuses to grow up. Besides being intertextual, I also find it crucial that my works refer to each other.
The second figure is Pinocchio, representing adolescence. Pinocchio is the story of a doll who wants to become a real human in order to grow and mature. But becoming human also means being faced with the certainty of death. A doll cannot die and is therefore doomed to eternal existence.
The nightmare of eternal life and the inevitability of death lead to the third puppet. It is a Homo Bulla-motif, where the bell represents the fragility of human existence and death.

The parts of the puppets were painted in a diverse manner, to emphasize that each puppet is constructed of the different identities of its genesis. For example, Peter Pan consists of parts that represent the deity Pan and Michael Jackson, who suffered from the Peter Pan Syndrome.