‘The Girls’ (2015–17) are string marionettes as in ‘Life Outside the Box’. They emerged as a reflection of each other: one using canes to walk, the other freer in her movements (see images of ‘The Girls’ on my blog at https:// corinaduyn.blogspot.com/2019/11/invisible-octopus-2-puppet-design.html).
One is my reality, the other portraying the invisibility of chronic illness, but also the choice to have freedom of mind. Due to the increasing inability to holding the marionette’s cross for any length of time, I designed ‘Póilin’ during 2017. This ‘wheelchair-lap-puppet’ can sit independently, and I can animate her via the rod in her back. ‘Póilin’ embodies the almost meditative quality of my life lived in enforced solitude. She shows peacefulness, but at the same time seems to have a strong ability to have her thoughts heard.
A sharp decline in my health during 2019 made sculpting a puppet more challenging. I needed to examine what kind of puppets I could still create and animate. I received invaluable support in this quest from Dr Emma Fisher through a mentoring bursary funded by Arts & Disability Ireland. We explored accessible puppetry formats like shadow puppetry, and I wrote a film script using my existing puppets as starting point. ‘Póilin’ is the narrator while ‘The Girls’ portray different aspects of my experience. This bursary also enabled me to pay for practical support. We created props including a hospital bed, recliner and a wheelchair. Observing ‘The Girls’ in their hospital bed and wheelchair created an unsettling emotional response, which was in total contrast with the pride felt of creative achievement.
Exploring puppetry with an easier access point, Dr Fisher suggested shadow puppetry. The word shadow triggered the memory of an unfinished book I had been working on years ago. A fictionalized story about my greatgrandmother’s spirit whose presence I felt on my body like the tentacles of an octopus. I lived in her shadows: the shadows of an invisible octopus. This sensation also embodies ME: the reality of un-diagnosable pain, of something invading my body, the many cognitive problems and not being in control of my movements, of my life. As if an ‘invisible octopus’ controls my life. The octopus became the hand in the drawing I made all those years ago: ‘Who is the hand that has control. […] What is the hand that holds the cross and moves strings at its will’.
NotforDistribution.
With support I made a fabric glove puppet octopus. It was a joy to realize that I could sew by hand while in my recliner chair. The more I worked on creating the puppet, the more ‘Octopus’ became the story. The octopus’s tentacles are also representative of different aspects of the Irish healthcare system. We are pulled and pushed, our voices often taken away or simply ignored. Being pushed further into the shadows, into the darkness. We become invisible. To not fully disappear, I will continue to explore ways to tell my story and that of my fellow hermits around the world. I am very excited to have been introduced to shadow puppetry using an overhead projector. The format is very accessible to me and has the immense power of conveying strong imagery.
Throughout the mentoring period I delved deep into the reality of my existence. Creatively, it was an amazing opportunity to explore, using different forms of puppetry in one project. Emotionally, it was profoundly challenging. My world is becoming increasingly smaller. I am creating my world in puppet size. To remain part of the world beyond my walls I share my work and experiences on social media (Duyn 2019). Through ‘Invisible Octopus’, I hope to make the invisible visible. Even to myself
REFERENCES
Duyn, Corina (n.d.), ‘Corina Duyn’, https://www.corinaduyn.com/site/. Accessed 6 April 2020.
Duyn, Corina (2016), ‘Life outside of the box’, YouTube, 11 July, https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Kv80lXXrgWc. Accessed 1 January 2020.
Duyn, Corina (2019), ‘Invisible Octopus’, Little Wings, 2 December, http:// corinaduyn.blogspot.com/search?q=Invisible+Octopus. Accessed 20 December 2019.
Life Outside of the Box (2016), ‘“Life outside of the box” puppet project’, http:// lifeoutsidethebox-puppetproject.blogspot.com. Accessed 6 April 2020.
ME Advocates Ireland (2018), ‘Information pack on the situation of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) patients in Ireland’, http://meadvocatesireland. blogspot.com/2018/01/me-information-pack.html. Accessed 6 April 2020.
SUGGESTED CITATION
Duyn, Corina (2020), ‘Making the invisible visible: Exploring life with chronic illness/disability through puppetry’, Journal of Applied Arts & Health, 11:1&2, pp. 117–124, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/jaah_00023_7
CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Corina Duyn is an artist, writer and puppet designer. Her creative work is informed by nature and life with the chronic illness/disability ME. Corina facilitated puppet-making projects, including with people with disabilities. She has given lectures in person and via Skype about puppetry and disability, including as keynote speaker at Broken Puppet 2, and as guest artist at Diplomado Muñecoterapia, Chile.
Contact: Little Wings, Co. Waterford, Ireland. E-mail: littlewings@corinaduyn.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5031-9568
Corina Duyn has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.
