My Dear Puppets vol.1 — Aliya Davletova

Aliya Davletova

My Dear Puppets vol.1
2024

Through My Dear Puppets, Aliya explores identity as a fragmented and continuously enacted psychological landscape. The project unfolds as a sculptural and performative installation in which internal subpersonalities are externalized as life-sized hand-crafted textile figures. Six recurring archetypal presences — the Warrior, the Demon, the Wise Old Man, the Mother, the Child, and the Soul — embody symbolic facets of the self, transforming inner states into material and relational form.

Set within an immersive red-draped environment, the installation evokes both theatrical scenography and ritual space. Here, the puppets function as emotional extensions and performative partners through which psychic content is activated and negotiated. Suspended between object and subject, self and other, they create a space where identity emerges through play, projection, and embodied ritual.

Drawing on archetypal psychology and the experimental legacy of Sophie Taeuber-Arp, My Dear Puppets proposes the self not as a fixed entity, but as a plural and shifting constellation of voices, enacted through intimacy, repetition, and symbolic play.

Interactive installation
Textile, fiberfill, wood, kanekalon
various dimensions:

Warrior 220 x 70 x 40cm
Mother 170 x 50 x 40cm
Demon 200 x 60 x 40cm
Wise Old Man 170 x 55 x 40cm
Child 150 x 45 x 35cm
Soul 180 x 55 x 1cm

→ Performance

Photo Credits: Polly Rola; Jorit Aust, 2024, licensed under CC BY ND SA 4.0

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