Fly Tip Theater Puppets

The Fly Tip Theater puppets are mutant creations born of collaboration between Brooklyn-based BAST and London’s Paul Insect. Musing on their shared love of puppets as kids and both without experience in traditional puppet making, the artists crafted the puppets from found and recycled materials. The characters often reference music and graffiti culture, with personas based loosely on celebrities, cartoons or those observed while people watching. Personas such as Tony the Tagger, Michael Wackson, Kid Ice and MC Salty first sprang to life in Insect’s Instagram videos, catching the eye of Banksy and leading to an appearance in his dystopian Dismaland installation. Insect and BAST also make films of themselves dancing around in various costumes they’ve created, from oversized boomboxes to animal heads, all keeping with both artists’ practice of public anonymity.