International Contemporary Puppetry Exchange

An exchange of puppetry practice from two ends of the world: London and Hobart.

In 2022, Terrapin will lead a unique cultural exchange program with UK contemporary puppetry practitioner Tim Spooner. In a series of international residencies, Tim and Terrapin artistic director Sam Routledge will explore one another’s practice: experimenting with form, movement and storytelling in the singular artform of puppetry.

Working remotely across countries and time zones, the exchange will be conducted partly through digital collaboration, allowing for extended relationship building. The two in-person residencies, hosted in each artist’s home city, will ground the exchange in physical experimentation.

Tim Spooner works in a mix of performance, painting and sculpture, aiming for new flavours which are strange and alluring. Fundamentally interested in unpredictability, his work is an exercise in balancing control with a lack of it in the handling of the materials and processes he is working with.

Image: Tim Spooner, The Voice of Nature, 2017. Photo: Benoît Schupp