Nini Ayach
Making a Utopian Political Puppet
Workshops took place on Monday 17th October & Friday 28th October 2016 in various locations (with invited community groups)
Parade:
Former Cairo-resident Nini Ayach delved into a hidden world of unspoken or un-permitted dialogue told through puppetry. Designed and devised in workshops, Ayach created an image of a ‘utopian leader’ to be paraded through the streets of Newcastle.
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Artist Bio: Nini Ayach is a French-American artist who has been working with collaborative theater and puppetry since receiving her BFA from Pratt Institute (New York) in 2011. Since 2012, she has collaborated closely with Hany Hommos, an Egyptian painter and puppet-maker who has worked extensively with different types of puppetry. Their first project together was making a giant street puppet presidential candidate “Bakaboza” during the presidential elections in Egypt.They have gone on to produce several performances together, specializing in shadow and street puppetry that address social issues including freedom of speech and ecology.
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Hidden Civil War was a month long programme of events and exhibitions across Newcastle upon Tyne that exposed, collated and presented evidence of a Hidden Civil War in Britain today. Hidden Civil War, a collaborative project, commissioned by The NewBridge Project and developed in partnership with East St Arts, Hands on Film Lab, Metal, Paper Rhino, Mark Donne, Taryn Edmonds, Chris Erskine, Julia Heslop, Beth Ramsay, Julie Tomlin, Vicky Ward and Aisha Zia. Hidden Civil War was delivered with the support of partner venues; Cobalt Studios, Tyne Theatre, Summerhill Bowling Club and The Cumberland Arms. Accompanying publication, The Precariat is produced by Paper Rhino.
