Wha-? "Southern California is home to an abundance of artists at the forefront of experimental and avant-garde puppetry." Things on strings! Who knew? So says the Santa Monica Museum of Art -- SoCal hides a hot bed of artists devoted to scary people-esque sculptures made from socks with buttons for eyes that you put your fist into and manipulate. And more! 

Now if you have no interest in the aesthetical vagaries of marionettes, shadow puppets, and ventriloquist dummies, but need to write a passable art history paper, muse on the good old master-slave dynamic of puppetry, thanks to Mr. Hegel, and explore issues of manipulation and control. There ya go! A+. 

Curiously, some fancy pants artists are represented here including Mr. Warhol, raised from the dead to do the Pinocchio. Included are Guy Ben-Ner, Nayland Blake, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Anne Chu, Nathalie Djurberg, Terence Gower, Dan Graham, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, Mike Kelley, William Kentridge, Cindy Loehr, Annette Messager, Paul McCarthy, Matt Mullican, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija, Thomas Schütte, Doug Skinner and Michael Smith, Laurie Simmons, Kiki Smith, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, and Charlie White.

Santa Monica Museum of Art "The Puppet Show" opens this Friday May 23, 7-9.

http://www.smmoa.org/site/news/news.html

ROBYN EWING for LA2DAY

rae@la2day