trapped in a coffin with nothing to do...

trapped in a coffin with nothing to do… is a new installation by Jack Cheetham. With the help of community and puppetry, the exhibition speculates on visions of future hometowns, families, loves, demons, and pals. The interactive installation imagines a forgotten puppet show that takes place in and around ruined castle grounds, set in the year 2066, in the fictional town of Helldham, Angelshireland. The puppet show has been abandoned due to a mass puppeteer revolt. Meanwhile several characters together attempt to break up with the main character, the Castle. The show is full of knackered puppets to be reanimated by the exhibition’s audience, becoming the puppeteer. Puppets have 'lives of their own', and Cheetham is interested in how puppet play is used in theatrical, political, and therapeutic contexts, and how it can be used as an alternative mode of communication through role-play as a treatment for trauma. The exhibition examines the potential and ongoing failures of its creators through a certain consumer-driven fantasied moment(s) in time. It is rooted in contemplations around consumerist cultures, labours, and legacies. It also incorporates expanded forms of caricature, cartooning and character design. All are realised as a potential mode of personifying, exhausting, and evaporating the effects that environment, objects, and materials can have on communities over time. Jack Cheetham is an artist and educator, raised in Derbyshire, England, and lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Glasgow School of Art graduating from the MFA programme in 2014. Since graduating he has also focused on community arts work, teaching, and workshopping - facilitating collective making through collaborations with numerous arts organisations including Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Artlink, Glasgow Clyde College, and Glasgow Sculpture Studios. Some recent exhibition projects include: cview, Gallery Celine, Glasgow Scotland (2020-2022); FASHION DUST UMAMI, CCA, Glasgow Scotland (2021), GESTS, Curfew Gallery, Glasgow Scotland (2019); John, Gallery Ffffriedrich, Frankfurt Am-Main Germany (2018); BRED, Bloc Projects, Sheffield England; Good £uck, Glasgow International, Scotland (2018 -curated by Beagles & Ramsay). www.jcheetham.com @jackycheetham [email protected]