When most people think of puppets, they usually think of the dolls that sit on a ventriloquists’ lap that tell funny, and sometimes insulting, jokes. The smiling, shiny puppet will usually say something smug or sarcastic and the ventriloquist will act surprised and embarrassed about their puppets’ behavior. 

Though this is a common role puppets play, it is not their only one. Throughout centuries and all across different countries, puppets have been used for all sorts of reasons. They were used for humans to speak with religious gods, to play dangerous acting roles that humans couldn’t and to express political ideas. 

“Life’s Little Dramas: Puppets, Proxies, and Spirits,” a Gregg Museum of Art & Design exhibit located in D.H. Library, tells some of those puppets’ stories from the glass shelves that line the walls.  

The exhibit began last semester and has been extended until Feb. 28, according to Roger Manley, director and chief curator of the Gregg Museum of Art & Design. The original end of the exhibition was to run through winter break and finish on Jan. 4. However, with so much great feedback along with a few more weeks until the next exhibition at D.H. Hill, University Libraries and the Gregg Museum decided to extend the exhibition, according to Manley. 

“The Gregg Museum is delighted that the exhibition will get some additional exposure through the extended stay,” Manley said. “Since a number of new students always show up with each new semester, it is great that they’ll have a chance to see the show as well.”

“Life’s Little Dramas” is an exhibition composed of puppets, robots, proxies and spirits. The exhibit is on the second floor of D.H. Hill Library before entering the Silent Reading Room.

According to Molly Renda, exhibits program librarian, the exhibit is in a great location because many students pass by and it offers students a break from studying.

“For students who study in the library it provides a pleasant break from hard work with text books and in front of computer screens, with a sun-filled conservatory to recharge energy,” Renda said. 

Both Renda and Manley stressed the importance of puppets because of their historical context. 

“This is a show about one of the most important ways that people communicate with each other,” Manley said. “Starting with the first shadow puppets on the walls of caves, puppets have always allowed people to explore and express the imagination.”

One portion of the exhibit shows how puppets were a big part of early television, according to Renda.  

“People may have a fixed idea about what a puppet exhibit might include,” Renda said. “But many people don’t know that the first broadcast television image was of a Felix the Cat puppet, and the first TV series and much of early television were puppet-based — and we have the clips from ‘Howdy Doody’ to prove it.”

Another part of the exhibition title is “proxies,” which is someone or something that has the power to act for someone else. Manley said both puppets — and robots — are considered to be “proxies” because they do things in place of humans. 

“Robots take risks on our behalf, too,” Manley said. “They tend to perform hazardous, unpleasant or highly repetitive tasks in fields like science, industry, security or exploration. Because both puppets and robots often act as proxies or stand-ins, going where we can’t go, doing what we can’t do, we decided to combine them in one exhibition.”

For example, Manley explained, puppets have been used to do things that would be considered dangers for a “real” person to do, such as simulate violence and death or even to talk to gods. 

“In the Middle Ages, puppets were used to tell the life stories of the saints and martyrs because you could stab a puppet or chop off its head,” Manley said. “Live actors tended to avoid that kind of thing. Puppets were also used to challenge authority, or satirize social customs when it would have been dangerous for a normal person to do so.”

Another example Manley mentioned was that during World War II, puppets were able to talk about sensitive political topics during times people could not. 

“Puppets in occupied countries like Poland or Czechoslovakia could make fun of Adolf Hitler and get away with it, but any human actor who dared do the same thing would have been shot or sent to a gas chamber,” Manley said. 

Manley said that before the invention of digital media, puppets could do what was before seemingly impossible — especially for humans to perform — such as fly, conjure up monsters, lose their heads, die and impersonate gods.

Both Manley and Renda said that having puppets from all around the world including China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Mali, the United States, England and Burma makes this exhibit especially unique and diverse. 

“One of the interesting things you learn from the exhibit is that puppets have been made for hundreds of years by people across the globe,” Renda said. “An international student commented in the guest book that he was proud to see the Indonesian puppets that represented his culture here in D.H. Hill so far from home.”

Renda said it is important for students to experience a culturally diverse exhibit at NC State, especially in an exhibit of this nature where cultural production is represented in such a variety of ways. 

“I mean, you could curate an entire exhibit about puppetry supported by the government’s WPA program during the height of the Great Depression in the U.S., but even within that much smaller topic there is a wide range of people and backgrounds to consider: laborers and artists, whites and African Americans, as well as regional and political diversity,” Renda said.

Manley said it is also great to show diverse cultures and traditions in one single exhibit because it shows the similarities amongst different people. 

“By seeing examples from a range of sources, in any exhibition, you begin to see the common threads that link them,” Manley said. “A show of pottery from around the world, or textiles or anything else helps you understand the essential qualities that make something what it is, while at the same time, you can appreciate the wonderful varieties of creativity that are all around us, all the time.”

To view the online gallery click here.