Material: TPU film, darning yarn

Live fish are sold in the basement of Frankfurt’s covered market hall or Kleinmarkthalle. Anyone who wants to prepare them as freshly as possible, selects the most lively-looking and carries them back home in a plastic bag filled with water. Anyone who prefers to have the fishmonger deal with their purchase is witness to an archaic procedure whereby the fishmonger takes a wooden club and kills the fish before gutting and gilling it with a clean cut.

All fish whether predatory or not are gutted using every trick in the book by their most powerful predator.

This scene inspired me to transform the predators into glove puppets who overpower their prey in the fish basement. As they are made of transparent PVC, you see immediately who is behind the façade and snapping at the smaller fish. The cutting out and sewing has to be accurate. Everything, whether seams, material or the actual sewing has to be just right so that the mouths can open and close properly –like with the old puppet crocodiles. For all their large, round appealing eyes my predatory fish puppets have the glassy washable gaze of the predator.

The puppets, some of which resemble dragons, not only battle against real fish but also confront other puppets in a playful struggle between life and death.