Dragon of Shandon ready for fright night
THIS Halloween night, while the witches of Cork city are flying down the Grand Parade on their broomsticks, the Dragon of Shandon will also be abroad.
A 36-foot, fully-articulated puppet, with a pair of jaws on him that would put a T-Rex in the half-penny place, the dragon has been brought to life through the powers of dark magic and sellotape. Its creation is also down to the combined efforts of the Cork Community Art Link Project, a team of artists and technicians who have been filling the streets of Shandon with assorted skeletons, ghosts and goblins for the past seven years.
Their work is proof of what kids’ TV presenters have been saying for decades: there’s nothing you can’t do with a roll of sellotape and unlimited imagination. All of the puppets in the dragon parade are made of the stuff, and this year, everyone in the city has a chance to help create them. Art Link has the call out for volunteer puppet-makers, and as I discovered, they’ll take anyone who turns up. Even those of us whose artistic credentials are minimal.
The reward of getting involved is the taking part of course, but the bonus here is that you’ll soon get to see your work in action. This year, when the dragon floats past you along Popes Quay, please pay special attention to his teeth. The second canine to the left on the top jaw, in particular. That is the bit of him that I made.
Of course, when I say ‘made’ in this context, what I mean is: ‘that is the bit I wrapped a roll of sellotape around and patted in place firmly’. You don’t have to be Michelangelo to help out with the Dragon Parade. The volunteer ethos at Art Link means the focus is as much on participation as it is on artistry and spectacle.
“A guy came to us one year, and he started making one bone with it, and it went from there,” explains William Frodé de La Forét, artistic director of the project. De La Forét is standing in the middle of the IAWS building, an aircraft-hangar size space on Albert Quay, taping together what looks like a giant rib-cage and giving me an impromptu lesson on puppet-making. Art Link have relocated here from their usual home on Shandon Street while they get ready for the parade, and bits and pieces of various spooks are everywhere. Three giant skeletons with glowing red eyes lean against the far wall. I am resting on the outsize thigh bone of another, being taught the sellotape technique.
The hardest part is finding the start of the tape-roll. It is so easy, a child could do it, and that is very much the point, according to the director.
“The transparency of it makes it great for Halloween, and it’s an easy technique to pass on, so it’s good for skills-sharing, which is an important part of the project.” Above us towers the Last Dragon of Ireland in all his toothy glory. How much sellotape did it take to bring him to life? “Oh God, about 400 or 500 rolls, I suppose.” Or 501 if you count the roll I added a few minutes later.
I was only puppet-making for an hour. Mine is not the dedication of volunteer artists and designers like Laura Pauwels and Tonio Colonna from the Department of Theatre Studies at UCC. The pair are making a full scale replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th century flying machine for the parade, and they have been working on it about 20 hours a week since September.
The machine is sculpted out of tubular piping covered with bubble wrap and lovingly moulded to look like gently curving bones. It looks incredible, but helping out on this one is not beyond me either, I am surprised to discover. Pauwels shows me how to tape up the wrap bubble-side down to make the bones smoother, and explains how she got involved.
“I came last year and made a tiny turtle that we put on the river. This year, I went on the internet, and found a guy who made Leonardo’s machine out of wood, so we decided it would be really cool to make it for the Halloween parade.”
Once it is finished, the machine will be mounted on a shopping trolley and driven through the streets of Cork by a sellotape skeleton. “The skeleton will be riding it, and it is designed so that it will open up in the wind, and look like it is really flying.” Just as da Vinci intended.
Nearby, Allesandro Golpe is building up his section of bones in the same fashion. Golpe is a fashion designer from Italy, working with Art Link as part of the European Volunteer Scheme alongside other young people from France, Spain and Bulgaria. Together with local community groups and organisations, they make up the workforce at Art Link.
But if making giant skeletons and bony flying machines is your idea of fun, it’s not too late to get involved. Art Link is looking for volunteers to help out every day between now and Halloween.
Check out the www.dragonofshandon.com or just turn up at the IAWS warehouse, next to the Idle Hour pub on Albert Quay. Sellotape is provided.
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