Latest / The Front / Nostalgic magic for a digital age: Jim Henson’s new museum blockbuster

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Nostalgic magic for a digital age: Jim Henson’s new museum blockbuster · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, this is the weekend edition of The Front.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Clare Harvey. If we measured artists by the impact
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  Speaker 1: of their work or the number of people it reaches,
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  Speaker 1: it'd be hard to go past Jim Henson, a puppeteer,
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  Speaker 1: a comic writer and a filmmaker, the creator of The
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  Speaker 1: Muppets and a vast imaginary world of creatures beyond. This
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  Speaker 1: coming weekend, Queensland's art gallery and gallery of modern art, Quagoma,
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  Speaker 1: will be opens a retrospective of the Jim Henson Company,
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  Speaker 1: which gave the world Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big Bird,
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  Speaker 1: Oscar the Grouch. They powered Sesame Street to revolutionise early learning.
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  Speaker 1: Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal inspired generations of filmmakers. And
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  Speaker 1: it started in Henson's adolescence, when he used his mother's
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  Speaker 1: winter coat and a couple of ping-pong balls to create
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  Speaker 1: a neurotic frog with the soul of a poet. Why
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  Speaker 1: are there so many songs about rainbows and what's on
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  Speaker 1: the other side? Today, behind the scenes of a spectacularly
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  Speaker 1: immersive exhibition that will make all of us feel like kids.
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  Speaker 2: We are back. My next guest is a most imaginative
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  Speaker 2: and talented gentleman who created the famous Muppets.
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  Speaker 3: Will you please welcome the hand behind the Muppets?
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  Speaker 1: Hello there. My name is Jim Henson and I'm a puppeteer. Jordan,
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  Speaker 1: were you part of the Jim Henson generation? Were you
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  Speaker 1: familiar with these magical characters who he created?
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  Speaker 3: I certainly was, Claire. Tell me about Elmo, Kermit, you know, Mr.
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  Speaker 3: Cookie Monster, all of them, and I'll know exactly what
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  Speaker 3: you're talking about.
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  Speaker 2: Today, in honour of.
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  Speaker 3: OK, time for a cookie break.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, Cookie Monster, we have only just begun.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, but what's your point? Cookie Monster, please!
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  Speaker 1: Young journo Jordan Lamont got the great gig of writing
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  Speaker 1: about the exhibition Make Believe Magic for the Australian's Culture section.
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  Speaker 1: Jordan was born after Jim Henson died in 1990, but
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  Speaker 1: his work shaped her childhood as much as it did
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  Speaker 1: mine in the 80s.
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  Speaker 3: Diving into Jim Henson's world and everything that he created
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  Speaker 3: was really, really special.
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  Speaker 1: When it first went to air in America in 1969,
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  Speaker 1: Sesame Street was a game changer. Created by Joan Gantz
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  Speaker 1: Cooney and Lloyd Morissette and featuring the Jim Henson Company's Muppets,
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  Speaker 1: Sesame Street was underpinned by science and psychological principles, educating
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  Speaker 1: and entertaining little viewers in equal measure. Sesame Street was
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  Speaker 1: set in then-grimy New York City, and just like the
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  Speaker 1: real Manhattan, it was unselfconsciously diverse. Black, white and Hispanic
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  Speaker 1: kids and adults playing and learning together. That was confronting
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  Speaker 1: for some parts of the US, and the show was
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  Speaker 1: briefly banned from broadcast in Mississippi. Now, A-list celebrities and
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  Speaker 1: musos appear on Sesame Street, which is broadcast in more
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  Speaker 1: than 150 countries and online. alongside Muppets who are on
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  Speaker 1: the autism spectrum and who use wheelchairs. One of the
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  Speaker 1: most loved characters from Jim Henson's universe is Mr Snuffleupagus.
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  Speaker 1: He looks a bit like a woolly mammoth and a
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  Speaker 1: bit like a dinosaur, brown and shaggy. And in Sesame Street,
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  Speaker 1: he's visible to the viewers and to a main character,
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  Speaker 1: Big Bird, but nobody else can see him and they
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  Speaker 1: don't believe he exists.
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  Speaker 3: Gee, Snuffy, what a great idea you had, bringing your
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  Speaker 3: camera over here so we can have a picture of
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  Speaker 3: the two of us together.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a swell idea, wasn't it, Bird?
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  Speaker 3: Finding out that he's actually two metres tall, two metres
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  Speaker 3: wide and four metres long was even more jarring. I
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  Speaker 3: couldn't believe it.
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  Speaker 1: Mr Snuffleupagus loomed large in my childhood. The friend Big
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  Speaker 1: Bird keeps insisting is really real, much to the scorn
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  Speaker 1: of others. It was, like most of Sesame Street, carefully layered.
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  Speaker 1: Where does imagination meet fabrication? What's okay to believe in?
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  Speaker 1: In the early 1980s, as a result of investigative journalism
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  Speaker 1: on and growing awareness of child abuse, Sesame Street's producers
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  Speaker 1: decided the running joke about Snuffy being imaginary should be
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  Speaker 1: replaced by the revelation Big Bird was telling the truth
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  Speaker 1: after all, that it would be better for the adults
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  Speaker 1: to be accepting rather than dismissive.
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  Speaker 2: Big Bird, you know what?
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  Speaker 3: From now on, we'll believe you whenever you tell us something. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Promise? Yes. Promise.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe we should get that in writing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Mr Snuffleupagus will be very much present at Qagoma, along
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  Speaker 1: with Henson's other worlds.
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  Speaker 3: He's revolutionary in the art of puppetry, and something that
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  Speaker 3: is making it so special is the fact that it's multigenerational.
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  Speaker 3: You know, whether you're seven years old or 70 years old,
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  Speaker 3: his puppets weren't just hand puppets that were in front
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  Speaker 3: of the stage. They were soft. They were lifelike. They
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  Speaker 3: had sharp wit, humor, and they really appealed to all audiences,
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  Speaker 3: not just kids. And that's what made him and his
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  Speaker 3: work so incredibly famous. Everybody scram! I love being a grouch.
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  Speaker 1: You met a lady called Amanda Slack-Smith. Who is she
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  Speaker 1: and how does she fit into this story?
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  Speaker 3: She's the curational manager and she is essentially the reason
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  Speaker 3: why Queensland has been given this world exclusive. On a
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  Speaker 3: trip to New York City doing research for the previous
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  Speaker 3: exhibition Fairy Tales at DOMA, was talking with the Jim
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  Speaker 3: Henson Company, looking through the archives, and when she saw,
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  Speaker 3: you know, 180 of these preserved puppets, she went, this
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  Speaker 3: is an exhibition in itself.
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  Speaker 2: It's a synergy. I had this amazing opportunity.
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  Speaker 3: Can I name drop?
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  Speaker 2: I had this amazing opportunity to meet Oscar the Grouch
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  Speaker 2: when I was in New York with a puppeteer. And
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  Speaker 2: I have to say, I fell in love with those
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  Speaker 2: glossy green eyes. I was five years old again.
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  Speaker 3: So through the trust that she had already developed and
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  Speaker 3: the relationships that she had, she basically bargained to get
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  Speaker 3: them shipped all the way down under. And, you know,
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  Speaker 3: now they're here for seven months next Saturday for everyone
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  Speaker 3: to enjoy.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes I think in the art world or the curator's world,
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  Speaker 1: you have to be pretty bold to put on an
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  Speaker 1: exhibition like this. I'm sure there are snobs in the
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  Speaker 1: art world who would think that this is not real art,
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  Speaker 1: that an institution like GOMA should be focusing on something
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  Speaker 1: much more difficult to explain and less popular. What do
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  Speaker 1: you think about that? And what did she say?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's more important than ever, actually. And I
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  Speaker 3: think it's going to appeal to people who won't even
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  Speaker 3: think that it would appeal to them. In a world
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  Speaker 3: where there's artificial intelligence and so much CGI, puppetry was,
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  Speaker 3: it was the beginning of it. You know, it created
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  Speaker 3: a world that was completely different to our own with blood,
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  Speaker 3: sweat and tears, with foam, wire and fabric. And Amanda agrees.
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  Speaker 3: She saw the art in it and, you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: not your conventional mural or artwork or sculpture, but I
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  Speaker 3: think it's more fun because of that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, puppets are so relatable. I mean, it's an ancient
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  Speaker 2: art form. It's one that's deeply embedded in the performing arts.
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  Speaker 2: And the work that puppeteers do, they bring this amazing,
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  Speaker 2: beautiful alchemy to magic and realism, which is why we
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  Speaker 2: relate to them, why we actually kind of look at a.
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  Speaker 3: Puppet and go.
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  Speaker 3: In a place outside time.
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  Speaker 1: In the early 80s, Jim Henson began thinking about how
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  Speaker 1: to write more sophisticated adult work. And the result was
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  Speaker 1: his 1982 fantasy film, The Dark Crystal.
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  Speaker 2: Where good and evil struggle to possess the dark crystal.
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  Speaker 1: Four years later, in 1986, Henson co-created and directed Labyrinth,
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  Speaker 1: an epic fantasy starring David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly,
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  Speaker 1: playing a teenage girl forced to confront the dark edges
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  Speaker 1: of what's real and what's not. Its executive producer was
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  Speaker 1: Star Wars creator George Lucas.
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  Speaker 2: Together, they will take you into a dazzling world of
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  Speaker 2: fantasy and adventure.
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  Speaker 1: Jim Henson's Creature Shop, a special effects and puppet workshop,
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  Speaker 1: also built the huge and intricate bodysuits, featured in Spike
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  Speaker 1: Jonze's 2009 movie adaptation of the children's book Where the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Wild Things Are. Artifacts of all those works will feature
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  Speaker 1: at the exhibition.
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  Speaker 3: So the entirety of Goeman's ground floor is being completely transformed.
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  Speaker 3: Amanda said it's something like a game of Tetris because
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  Speaker 3: the sliding stages in every single room has been curated
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  Speaker 3: to the design. So the Muppets will have their own area.
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  Speaker 3: The Creature Shop will have their own area. And it's
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  Speaker 3: just been completely transformed. Like this is such a big
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  Speaker 3: deal that they're going all out with it. There's also
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  Speaker 3: the free films that are happening as well in the Cinematheque.
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  Speaker 3: People get to watch Jim Henson's films, but also other
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  Speaker 3: films like Where the Wild Things Are, which Jim Henson's
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  Speaker 3: creature shop created props for.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, why there's no time like the present to
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: travel back in time. You're part of the generation, the
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  Speaker 1: post-Elmo generation, who are now using social media to really
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: dive into nostalgia. I'm so interested in how nostalgia is
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  Speaker 1: such a powerful cultural force these days in a way
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  Speaker 1: that it probably wasn't when I was a kid. I
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  Speaker 1: was born in the late 70s, but I was definitely
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  Speaker 1: not in the 1990s looking back at things that had
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  Speaker 1: been big in my childhood. There just wasn't really the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to do that. It was always about moving forward
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  Speaker 1: and what's next and what's cool now. What do you
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  Speaker 1: think is behind that yearning for the memory of childhood
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  Speaker 1: or recapturing a feeling that you had when you were
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  Speaker 1: a kid? One surface interpretation of that could be that
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  Speaker 1: your generation is finding today's world a bit dark and
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  Speaker 1: they're not loving it. And so they're taking comfort in
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  Speaker 1: the past. Is that too simplistic?
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  Speaker 3: I don't think that's simplistic at all. I think that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, everything's moving so fast these days and it's
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  Speaker 3: difficult to keep up with new trends and new things.
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  Speaker 3: So there's some kind of safety and comfort in going
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  Speaker 3: back to something that, you know, is, you know, 10,
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  Speaker 3: 20 years old, 70 years old and enjoying it still.
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  Speaker 1: Jordan, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Claire.
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  Speaker 2: I appreciate you. And Elmo loves you.
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  Speaker 1: Jordan Lamont is a journalist with The Australian. You can
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: read Jordan Lamont's story at theaustralian.com.au slash culture right now.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on The Front this week. This
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  Speaker 1: episode was hosted by me, Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen
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  Speaker 1: Amiette and edited by Liat Samaglou. Our team also includes
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Tiffany Dimak, Joshua Burton and Jasper Leake, who also wrote
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  Speaker 1: our themes.