I’m not quite sure how this idea first coagulated in my head, but here is a project in which I am making hand puppets inspired by the puppets of Paul Klee, designed to appear in a Punch and Judy-style puppet show but where the story is the tale of the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill by extraterrestrials.

I am imagining a dystopian British future in which creepy and weird seaside puppet shows draw on the half-forgotten urban legends of the distant past. The Hill case seemed like an interesting piece of modern American folklore to transpose into this highly European art form.

I have sculpted some heads, including an alien, the alien commander and Barney Hill, all using a ping pong ball armature and sculpted in polyfilla, painted with acrylic. The bodies will be the difficult bit, but let’s worry about that later!