Conceptualization

Display

The main idea of the project was to find different ways of displaying the object. A More creative and interactive display. A display that would create curiosity and interest in the viewer. Keeping this in mind we had to do a display for a museum in Kerala.
For this, my main objective was to have a relation among the objects to be displayed rather than placing them in isolation on shelves as display.

Concept
While researching on puppets, there were certain characters that held more importance than the others. Certain puppets were shown in many scenes. There was a god, then the king and so on. So I wanted to show hierarchy. On further iteration I thought of recreating a kerala house roof and converting that into a shelf for the puppets. The main puppet would come on top and the puppets under it would come below. I thought of making the inverted ‘v’ that they have on the roof as a shelf and having a more decorated shelf for the main puppet, a less decorated one for the secondary puppets and have the wall as a gallery of puppets for the tertiary ones. The inverted ‘v’ shelf would be protruding out of the wall and the gallery of puppets would be placed as a cavity in the wall.
I decided to have a stage for the performance in the display room itself because after the performance one can go back to he puppets and get a better picture of their role. The stage will have a wing on either side for keeping their props.
For the performance it is very difficult to see when everyone is standing. For this I decided to have a rectangular cavity in the floor which will be 2 feet or more deep, where people can sit on the planks and view the puppet show.

Top view

Front View

The Room

Poster

The puppets showed beautiful detail in the carving and costumes. I wanted to make this aspect prominent to the viewers. Therefore I decided the image to speak for itself rather than the text giving information. This I did by having the image in a large size, covering almost three fourth of the page and having the information at the bottom. I wanted the viewer to get maximum information from the image and then go to the text for further details.

Catalogue

There is going to be a detailed information about the topic inside the catalogue. Hence I thought of keeping the cover a little towards the abstract side by having a part of the puppet and not focusing on the puppet itself by making it literal. I wanted to create mystery, curiosity in the viewer to open the catalogue and have a look inside. I chose to give importance to the hands of the puppets because just by the Kath kali madras, one can know what puppet character it is.

Cover

Inside

Back Page

Certain Pavakathakali Characters

‘Tadi’ is divided into ‘Vella Tadi’ (White beard) such as Hanumana with white, black, red and green paints on face. ‘Chuvanna Tadi’ (Red beard) are for demons and kings like Ravana with red, black and white paint on face, with knobs on the forehead and tip of the nose.

‘Kari’ is forest demoness with black make-up.

‘Katti’ is a common villan character with red lines on either side of nose, white moustache, red and white colours over the eyebrows and white knobs as Chavanna Tadi.

‘Pacha’ is a noble and heroic character with green face, chutti (white border) along the line of cheek bones and red lips.

‘Minukku’ is a good female character with yellow colour and natural look.

Brief Description on Pavakathakali Puppets and it’s performance:

Puppeteers adopt Attakkathas texts of Kathakali and only four or five stories are performed. The stories, derived from the great epic ‘Mahabharata’, are presented in the form of a play. It uses the narration style similar to that found in ‘Kathakali’, the famous dance-theatre art-form. The head and arms of the puppets are made from ‘Kumbilu’ tree wood. Each puppet takes about a month to make. They exhibit detailed carvings.They are up to two feet in height
(between 30 and 60 centimeters high) weighing less than 2 kilograms, painted in various shades and adorned with gilded tin, transparent corals and peacock feathers. The conventions of kathakali character types in respect to costumes, headgear, make-up and color are followed in pavakathakali. A green face indicates a god, king or hero, whereas a red face indicates a villain. The puppeteers keep some puppets ready in their stock, which are essential characters for the performance such as ‘Tadi’, ‘Kari’, ‘Katti’, ‘Pacha’, ‘Minukku’, and more.

The puppeteer sits on an elevated platform manipulating the head is by the index finger and the arms by the thumb and the middle finger. While manipulating, puppeteers enact dramatic expressions which cannot be done by puppets. The performance lasts for an hour or two. The performance is accompanied by music produced using traditional instruments like chenda, cymbals and conch shells. The necessary illumination is provided by a brass oil-lamp called ‘Kuthuvillaku’. The puppeteers enter from the right blowing conch shells, beating a drum and singing songs from the Puranas.

What is Pavakathakali or Pavakoothu?

'Pava' means doll and 'koothu' means dance. It is a traditional glove puppetry show native to Kerala. This art form is performed mostly in the rural areas. This tradition can be traced back to almost 4 centuries (the 18th century) from Paruthippuly village of the Palghat district , after Kathakali reached that region. It is believed that goddess ‘Vishnumaya’ assumed the form of a beautiful puppet to fascinate the Asuras (demons). It is practised in the interior villages of Palakkad district and its surrounding areas. For several generations a few families from the Paruthippully village of Palakkad, known as ‘Andi Pandarams’, have been practising this form of puppetry.

History of Glove Puppets:

Glove puppets do not have a known history. This is primarily because nomads generally carry the puppets and put up performances in open space with hardly any set and minimum props.
Kerala is the most popular in this kind of puppetry and it is known as Pavakathakali or Pavakoothu.

What are glove puppets?

Puppets, whose head and hands are made of wood or any other material and remain covered with cloth on the other parts are called glove puppets. They are the simplest of all puppets.