Sarah & Charles’ ‘A Screening Among Friends’ revolves around their new video work ‘In the Hands of Puppets’. In this work, Sarah & Charles further their research into reality and fiction. It is the first time they work with digital animation. 

The script for the video is derived from conversations that took place at the Sint-Alexius-Elsene Psycho-social Centre and in the artists’ studio, with artists as well as people prone to psychosis, two groups of people for whom the boundary between reality and fiction has special significance. 

A virtual (and very expressive) hand puppet converses with several interviewees (who all share the same voice). The puppet is interested in their feelings and emotions, but doesn’t seem to take them all too seriously.  its cartoonish, high pitched voice, has a comical effect in contrast with the slow, computerised voice of the interviewees. 

In what seems to be a fragmented therapeutic session they discuss a range of topics, but in the end one question remain: who is in control? Who is the puppet, who is the puppet master?

Movie poster: In the hands of puppets, 2019

photo, framed, pigment print on paper, 70 x 110 cm

In the hands of puppets, 2019

Computer Animated Single channel video, Full HD (vertical), color, stereo sound, 9’03”

In the hands of puppets, 2019

Computer Animated Single channel video, Full HD (vertical), color, stereo sound, 9’03”

In the hands of puppets, 2019

Computer Animated Single channel video, Full HD (vertical), color, stereo sound, 9’03”

In the hands of puppets, 2019

Computer Animated Single channel video, Full HD (vertical), color, stereo sound, 9’03”

In the hands of puppets, 2019

Computer Animated Single channel video, Full HD (vertical), color, stereo sound, 9’03”

In the hands of puppets, 2019

Computer Animated Single channel video, Full HD (vertical), color, stereo sound, 9’03”