The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
SOUL OF A PUPPET
Neda Izadi brings her creations to life in exhibit at Russell Library
MIDDLETOWN — For Neda Izadi, puppets are far from child’s play.
In America, people are most familiar with Jim Henson’s Muppets, those cuddly, funny and vivacious characters that, even into adulthood, conjure happy memories of childhood.
Although Izadi, an Iranian master of fine arts student at the University of Connecticut, has entertained kids with her creations, to her, these manipulated human-like figures are a very serious thing.
“Puppets have the potential to show a strong meaning. It has more strong language than other fine arts, like painting or sculpting, because this is a show and you can show meaning.
Each artist will get a different meaning from one subject,” and often carry the experience and messages with them home after the show.
Puppets also engender an emotional connection with audience members, she said.
“They like to see something that is not real — something they cannot see in their real life. It helps them to escape for an hour, two hours and watch a fantasy show,” said Izadi, whose exhibit, “Neda
“Before the show, the puppet is an object, and immediately after the show starts, it changes.”
Neda Izadi, artist and puppeteer
Izadi: Puppets, Masks and Design,” is on display at the Russell Library, 123 Broad St., through July 30.
Her pieces, displayed on the second floor, are from her work during the past two years as a graduate student of puppetry. Each is brilliantly colored and renders individual characters: shadow puppets, rod puppets and masks.
Izadi, 32, who also has
directed shows, first became interested in the craft at age 9 while taking painting and drawing classes.
She earned her undergraduate degree in drama from Sooreh University in Tehran in 2010. After graduation, Izadi worked as a professional puppeteer for six years.
“You can tell very important issues with puppetry, especially universal (ones). It’s the best way to show very complicated issues.”
One of her most arresting creations is that of a woman
in an ankle-length, satiny purple and lilac dress which she holds delicately at the edges, seemingly just about to curtsy.
Her short hair, a multidimensional arrangement of vine green, dark purple, light blue and white yarns, tops a visage akin to a creation of film director Tim Burton.
The puppet’s soulful blue eyes and aquiline nose dominate her face in strong contrast to her drawn and off-centered red lips — and the long, cross-hatched scar on her cheek.
This is “Beautifly.” “Instead of butterfly, it’s ‘Beautifly.’ That face is a really great face. Obviously, she’s been through a lot. She’s sort of a Frankenstein kind of thing. She’s broken,” said Community Services Librarian Rolande Duprey, who also has an MFA from UConn.
She points out the sparkly, realistic eyes of a rich blue and sunflower-golden monkey-like rod puppet with an elfin face.
“You want that light to come through the eyes,” Duprey said.
To its left is a pale yellow creature that resembles a Muppet. “Its two eyes form a magic triangle of focus,” a simplicity that has universal appeal.
“If I were to portray a witch, all I would need is a pointy hat. It’s an iconic expression,” Duprey said.
Another figure, “Al,” is a brown burlap mask with a face redolent of Russian shrunken apple dolls: all created with manipulated fabric and long strands of jute that serve as hair. She is a common character in Persian folklore.
The technique used to create the figure is influenced by the late Connecticut mask maker Larry Hunt , who developed a process of using burlap and glues to create “odd faces you discover within the fabric,” Duprey said.
“You can create a woman just with fabric,” explained Izadi, who lived in Iran for 30 years.
Many are frightened by puppets after being exposed to horror films depicting menacing clowns and maniacal puppets, Duprey said as she showed off a “corpse bride” with red lashes and slash of a mouth with deep black eyes and a cavernous mouth. She holds a bunch of dried, blackened roses.
On pedestals, their varied and deeply rendered features are static. On stage, however, a gifted puppeteer imbues them with life.
“Before the show, the puppet is an object, and immediately after the show starts, it changes,” Izadi said.
“You can hide your face: nobody can see who you are, and you cannot show any meaning with your face, facial expression. You have your buddy and everything is exaggerated body language,” the artist said about the craft of puppetry.
One aspect of her thesis work has to do with the political status of Iranian women.
Her masters of fine arts production, “After Sunrise,” will be presented Feb. 2, 2020, in the Studio Theater at UConn’s School of Fine Arts. It explores the changes and advances Iranian women are experiencing in a traditionally male-dominated culture.
These women are very educated, Izadi said. “This generation is so different from previous generations. They like to speak up about problems and cultural issues,
but because of moral or government issues, they cannot.
“I want to be the language of them,” she said.
In her piece, one of her actresses sings on stage, something forbidden in Iranian culture.
“Men threw acid on women’s faces,” Izadi said. “After that, those women’s lives changed completely, and they suffer that for the rest of their lives,” she said, explaining one facet of her production.
Her thesis project also incorporates Middle Eastern mythology, something largely unfamiliar to Americans, who are most familiar with Egyptian or Greek lore.
Duprey explains Izadi’s shadow puppets, which are Indonesian and Chinese figures.
“I’m so impressed with how she did this, because it is very difficult to use cardboard. It looks like metal or leather.”
Izadi’s shadow puppets are two-dimensional objects placed between a light source and a screen during a show, Duprey said.
“In the Indonesian puppet world, the tradition is the men can go behind the screen and look at the figures in color, while the women and children are behind the screen watching the show of shadow,” she explained.
“Beautifly” and the corpse bride speak deeply to Duprey.
“It’s a different aesthetic, because she’s been affected by the culture around her,” she said, referring to the purple puppet. “I’m sure she’s seen things that weren’t in my world at her age.”
For information on the exhibit, visit russell library.org, call 860-3472528 or follow Izadi on Facebook.