Christian Jankowski

Christian Jankowski, whose slightly mischievous works have appeared in the Berlin Biennale (1999) and the Whitney Biennial (2002) has made a new video work for Carnegie Museum of Art. The piece, titled Puppet Conference, is a video record of interactions that ostensibly take place at a "symposium," where famous puppets have gathered to discuss the vocation, celebrity, and private lives of puppets. Filmed at Carnegie Museum of Art, this conference, brings together a panel that includes a number of internationally known television puppets, including Grover from Sesame Street, Fozzie Bear from the Muppet Show, and Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop, familiar to generations of viewers since her first appearance with Shari Lewis on Captain Kangaroo in 1957. The panel also includes Mr. Shelby from The Magic Woods, a new Pittsburgh-based children's environmental education program. Art Cat, Carnegie Museum of Art's mascot for family and children's activities, will serve as the conference moderator.

In Puppet Conference, the puppets discuss the intricate web of understanding and protocol that defines a puppet's personal identity. Puppet Conference has the appearance of a live-action video that records words and actions as they occur. To create the video, Jankowski collaborated with the puppets in ways that permit the work to be faithful to each puppet's public persona, yet allows for surprises and revelations when the balance shifts from the planned to the unforeseen. Puppet Conference will also include a brief slide history of television puppets, narrated by Art Cat, and a cameo appearance by Elmo from Sesame Street.

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Forum: Christian Jankowski
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