String Puppet Item Number: 3375/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
String puppet. Puppet carved from a section of bamboo with three stacked faces carved in the upper half and a notch cut out of the top. The puppet is lightly carved with the designs painted in blue, red, teal and black. The top face has eyes that are underlined in red, a red down-turned mouth, black steeply angled eyebrows and a moustache and split chin beard. The second face has solid black angled eyebrows with blue lines above them, red outlined eyes, and a mouth with two incisors and two long fangs. The third and bottom face, has red outlined eyes with bright blue mask around the eyes, small black moustache, wide red lips with teeth showing, and three different designs of concentric circles along the jaw alternating between blue and black. Each figure has movable limbs, which are controlled by strings inserted into three holes on each side and have circular cross-sections of bamboo attached to the ends of each pair of strings at the bottom. The top two sets of limbs are longest with three cylindrical bamboo grass beads and long blade-like structures at the ends. The lowest set has two cylindrical bamboo beads and a circular cross-section of bamboo at the end. The carved designs extend into the lower portion of the bamboo and has two concentric hearts at centre. The back is carved with artist's signature(?).
Jiun-Yang Li made this puppet while in residency at MOA, in November 2015, as a hands-on object. It was originally intended for display as part of his work, "Miao" in the "(In)visible: The Spiritual World of Taiwan through Contemporary Art" exhibition. The work didn't end up being displayed in the exhibition, so the artist gifted the puppet to the curator, Nakamura, who later donated it to MOA.