Sappyfest for Dummies wants you to create your doppleganger for this year’s festival
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.… Continue