chrysalis
Winter’s grasp is broken
by Spring’s circle of enchantment
and Beltane rituals
Holiday with Cthulhu
Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s brilliance and his most charming creation Cthulhu – Here is a series of photos created with my friend Adam for the holidays.
Yuletude Greetings from the Elder Things and Deep Ones!
Eggnog
Group Action
Mistletoe
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Bread and Puppet turns 50
Shatterer of Worlds
A church-space slowly fills with multitudes of roughly shaped figures.
Perhaps mythic ancient figures – golems, women of Willendorfs, pygmies, giants.
Handmade beautiful grotesques.
Songs whisper forth from the shadows – found object instrument/machines whistling, klinking, whirring, rattling.
Puppets are conjured an audience is swallowed.
Below are some photographs from the recent appearance of the Bread and Puppet Theater at the West Park Presbyterian Church, NYC. Taken November 24th, 2013
Shatterer of Worlds curtain photo: Andytoad
Shatterer of Worlds photo: Andytoad
Shatterer of Worlds photo: Andytoad
Shatterer of Worlds photo: Andytoad
Shatterer of Worlds (Peter Schumann) photo: Andytoad
Shatterer of Worlds photo: Andytoad
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Debut Showing: Ghost Lines
Coming Soon!
The premiere of a new evening length piece – Ghost Lines – by my friend and collaborator Cori Olinghouse.
Ghost Lines incorporates live performance and film with costume design by me!
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Illustration by Lauren Simkin Berke
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GHOST LINES
December 12-14, 2013
Thursday-Saturday at 8:00PM
Danspace Project:
131 East 10th Street (at Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
Using an archival impulse to channel a lost movement history, Cori Olinghouse’s latest work contains echoes ranging from silent film comedians to Dada, Surrealism, and Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus’ choreographer of unusual visual ballets. A cast of accomplished dancers: Michelle Dorrance, Elizabeth Keen, Mina Nishimura, and Eva Schmidt scramble through multiple personalities and pseudo stories.
As part of the evening, Olinghouse and film artist, Shona Masarin merge creative processes with a 16mm black & white film that uses traditional animation techniques, hand processing, chemical experiments, collage, painting, and drawing. In the film, Olinghouse acts as a medium, conjuring imagery from our collective unconscious, allowing a series of imagined spaces, forms, characters, and personalities to drift through her body, take form, and dissolve again. Drawn to the mechanics of the medium as it relates to perception, kinetics, and optical illusion, they look for rhythms and startling chance compositions that confuse, seduce, and assault the senses.
Costumes by Andrew Jordan
Lighting designer Kathy Kaufmann
Sound design for live choreography by Ryan Ross Smith
Sound design for film by Andrew Hurst
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TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: Danspace Projects
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Photograph from the set of Ghost Lines photo: Andytoad
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©
© AndyToad
Family Reunion
Some friends I met recently on a visit to Detroit, hanging out in the Detroit Institute of Art.
Ritual Figure
early 1900’s , Unknown Artist, Kongo Culture, Democratic Republic of Congo
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Female Figure
1300’s, Unknown Artist, Chancay Culture, Peru
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Standing Warrior with Club
100 B.C.E. – 400 C.E., Unknown Artist, Jalisco Culture, West Mexico
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Cryptid Miscellanea
Earlier this summer I was asked by illustrator Bil Donavan to take part in a mythology themed drawing night at the Society of Illustrators. It sounded like fun so I gathered together some of the creature costumes that I’ve created over the past few years and took them to over to the Society. Working together with three models I created a motley crew of fantastic beings that were then drawn by the illustrators in attendance. Such fun! It was such a great experience to see my designs come to life and be rendered in pen, ink, watercolor… – with such amazing illustrative talent! Below are a few images that were graciously shared with me by the artists.
Illustration by Clifford Faust
Illustration by Clifford Faust
Illustration by Joan Chiverton
Illustration by Clifford Faust
Illustration by Stefano Imbert
Illustration by Clifford Faust
Illustration by Joan Chiverton
Illustration by Joan Chiverton
Illustration by Clifford Faust
The Minotaur modeling photo: Bil Donavan
Illustration by Stefano Imbert
Old Man From the Sea
Photographs of a costume recently made with Baxton Alexander.
It came from the deep to watch the sun set photo: Andytoad
Shell skirt and mask photo:Andytoad
mask detail photo: Andytoad
Voyagings
gif stills from Eidolon: Raven Sequence (2013)
……………………………..From Night-Gaunts by H.P. Lovecraft
