For most of us when we think of puppets we automatically visualise Sooty and Sweep, Basil Brush, The Muppets or, possibly, the characters from Spitting Image. What doesn't immediately spring to mind are sensual, beautifully-crafted creatures that move with the grace of ballerinas.
But that's just what artist Stephen Mottram has created in Organillo, his latest intriguing show featuring marionettes, sculptures and "automatons" - motor-driven puppets.
The word Organillo has two meanings; it refers to small, wriggly creatures that live underwater, it is also a miniature street organ, originally from Europe but more often found in Argentina and South America.
This is a complex piece of performance art. There are no words - just an hour of sound and movement with creations that appear to be half people, half fish living in an underwater environment. It is all set to the music of composer Sebastian Castagna much of which is played on a miniature organ made by Stephen Mottram.
Organillo deals with the issues of birth and fertility and is intended as a sensual, visual experience with the hope that it will evoke an emotional response from the audience.
"This amazing thing, the whole question of fertility and birth, is not really in our culture. Just as death is ignored, so is birth," says Stephen.
All the puppets are operated by Stephen who also acts as a protagonist in the show and describes himself as "like a dancer, rather than an actor."
"I hope people will be entertained by it, and I hope they will be enriched," he says.
Tickets for Organillo are available from The Gantry box office on 023 8022 9319.
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