Sackville-based artists Shary Boyle and Graham Patterson are working to convince Sackville residents to create dummies–modeled after themselves–that will be part of a special audience during the Sappyfest music and art festival this August.
The project is called Sappyfest for Dummies, and the artists held an ‘idea jam’ workshop last week at Struts Gallery. CHMA was there and spoke to Boyle, as well as some potential local dummy-makers.
Boyle says the plan is to gather as many Sackville dummies as possible into the Ralph Pickard Bell Library theatre over the festival weekend. It “will be a moment to remember,” says Boyle, “having as many members of the community self-representing their doppelgangers, avatars, or dummies, as we’re calling them, in the seats of the theatre.”
The project is not just for artists or skilled craftspeople. On Thursday Boyle and Patterson outlined a wide range of techniques that people can use, from basic stuffed-clothes porch dummies to more sophisticated structures with wooden frames. There’s also many options for heads and faces, including photocopied photos, papier maché, and simply drawing on a paper bag. Boyle herself created her dummy with torn corrugated cardboard and a hot glue gun, while Patterson’s features a found piece of wood which, with the right embellishments, bears a surprising resemblance to the artist.
Boyle and Patterson are collecting pledges from those who have expressed interest in the project, to commit them to following through with the project. As an added incentive, anyone signing a pledge will be entered into a draw. Two winners will get a custom-made dummy of the person of their choice, created by either Patterson or Boyle.
One workshop attendee on Thursday said she pledged after hearing about the potential prize. ”I really want to win that raffle,” she said. “I’m inspired by the win.”
Both Boyle and Patterson are accomplished, career artists who have settled in Sackville. Patterson’s show Strange Birds finished exhibiting at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in May, and Boyle’s Outside the Palace of Me is on now at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina. In 2013, Boyle represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. Both artists have been shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s largest prize for artists 40 and under.
Boyle and Patterson are continuing their recruitment of willing dummy-makers with displays at the Sackville Farmers Market, and another workshop focussed on hands-on dummy making at Struts Gallery on June 27.
“There are a lot of people that are committing to this,” says Boyle. “And the more that do it, the more that want to do it… I am amazed and thrilled and the ball is rolling.”
You can find out more about the project through Struts Gallery.