Peace & Judy stall

As part of the Tate Exchange associate team (MA in Politics, Art and Resistance at the University of Kent), the associate members are able to put on a workshop in the Tate Exchange space (Level 5 in the Switch House, Tate Modern) as part of the associate's programme that's running throughout Spring 2017. Teaming up with Valley Kids, Canterbury Christchurch University, People's United, and Whitstable Biennale; we came up with the idea of the Fairground as the theme for our week-long workshop.

One of the stalls will be 'Peace & Judy' - a puppet stall where participants will be invited to play out a non-violent version of Punch & Judy. Participants will also be invited to make the puppets throughout the week. The idea for this stall was formed during a conversation between Anne (Valley Kids) and myself, and will be created as a collaboration.

The first image shows a sketch of the sides of the stall with measurements. We agreed that the measurements should be a little bigger than the average Punch and Judy stall, so that more than one participant can interact with the stall at a time. The written measurements were as follows: 180cm (H) with the height of the stage starting at 110cm x 150cm (W) x 60cm (D).

Using scrap pieces of plywood, a drill and a jigsaw; I cut out and assembled the stall. In the ninth image, you can see a drill bit which is called a countersink. I used this to create deeper holes for the screws, as can be seen in image ten. In image eleven, I have use wood filler to cover these countersunk screws, and I have also weighted down two bits of plywood that are being glued onto the sides (these can be seen clearly in the following images).

The last three images were taken on Saturday 11th February in the studio at Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury. This studio was booked out for a painting workshop with Valley Kids.

*Sketch was created on 7th February 2017. Photographs of the process of constructing the stall were taken on 8th, 9th, and 10th February 2017. Photographs of painting the stall were taken on 11th February 2017.

Peace & Judy at Tate Exchange (12-15th April):

The Peace & Judy stall was a permanent feature throughout the four days at Tate Exchange. It became a performative piece, as well as an interactive stall. Throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday (13th, 14th and 15th April), the young people of Valleys Kids performed regular plays of their reinvention of Peace & Judy with their puppet creations. Curtis, who performed the main role during these performances, and the young people created the script by exploring possible storylines of non-violent versions of Punch & Judy. Their script and puppets were then created in response to these discussions with the Artworks team at Valleys Kids.

The public were also invited to create their own puppet shows with the puppets they could make at the Puppet making table, below is the signage used for the stall:

"Come and reinvent the famous puppet show Punch & Judy! In Peace & Judy, participants are invited to play out a non-violent version of Punch & Judy.

Create your own characters to star in the new show! These new puppets and props should be designed according to whatever conditions you have for peace and non-violence. Please find the available box of wooden spoons and other materials for participants to transform into puppets.

Puppets can then be used in a new performance of Peace & Judy in the puppet theatre, played out by participants. Puppets can then be taken away with participants, exchanged with other participants, or left for other participants to use."

*Photographs 14-22 were taken by Jason Pay on 14th April 2017.

*Blog was updated on 14th May 2017: information and photographs of Peace & Judy at Tate Exchange were added.