Alter Ego, In the Making

“I grabbed her fat body and began stabbing it with a knife. I cried, because it felt like suicide. Several neighbours peeked out from their windows. The picture that unfolded in front of their eyes should have been picturesque: a fat girl next to the trash can in the backyard, cutting the plush body parts of a giant puppet. But it was, indeed, a suicide.” - Clarissa, puppet-maker. The series “Alter-Ego” was inspired by a book by Dina Rubina called “Petruschka’s Syndrome”. It tells the story of a passionate puppet-maker, that has a Frankensteinian ambition to bring inanimate objects to life. The story led me to dive into a journey discovering the world of Berlin’s puppet-makers. During my exploration, I met 50-year old Sylvia, who lives with a giant male puppet; Salome, whose favourite puppet looks like her twin; and Karl, whose facial features can be recognised in more than 50 puppets in his studio. The intimacy in which they touched their puppets; the tenderness that they referred to them in, together with an eager desire to create an alter-ego, mesmerised me. In front of you are the results of this encounter.