Chelsea Bayouth
puppets poetry masks art
Hi. I'm Chelsea. And my vessel is a busy one. I am a poet, a writer, an artist and a fabricator. I figure things out. I make a lot of stuff. Heres a bit about my art:
Roll together every David Attenborough documentary, grimy 80’s creature films, and the dark whimsy of Hans Christian Andersen inspired storybook beasts and you have the burrito of art I create. Using lowbrow, femmy folk art practices like papier-mâché and cardboard fabrication, I create expressive beasts, puppets and monsters from the recycled materials I collect. Being a person of many variations (Jim Carrey and Robins Williams, childhood idols of mine) the creatures I create convey a sound to the viewer by their often howling and creaturely faces. They appear in suspended animation, spell-frozen in a moment of their feralness, like the gargoyles from Hunchback of Notre Dame, or the subjects of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. In this imaginary world, I’ve created a space of transcendence, far from the politeness of everyday expression.
My creatures are overly morose, maniacally giddy and ecstatically ragefull. Rarely do their eyes track together, their wall-eyed droopiness lending another layer of the otherworldly, whether by drug induced divination or congenital defect, it is up to the viewer. In a sweeping statement my mother has offered of my art and why I make it, better out than in.
I aspire towards the playful, I aim for macabre and I direct my art in whatever form it takes to the innate primal callings of the insanity we all possess but keep tightly and fervently muzzled!
On this site you will find images of my personal art and professional fabrication and links to my published poetry and short stories. To inquire about work, commissions or performance I can be reached by clicking the little black envelope below!
(Also, heres some interviews to get to know me better!)
My brother takes fancy photos in back of restaurants...Hi.
