An exhibition of “puppetised” seaside post cards opens in Great Yarmouth on Monday.
Puppeteer Marcus Clarke, who has a string of film and TV credits to his name, embellishes pictures with gem stones and jewellery to create something that looks “precious and treasured.”
As a child he lived for a short time with relatives - a trio of war veterans with various impairments - in Yarmouth.
But his works spring from his seaside memories of Sheringham’s Hooks Hill orphanage where he lived for a year when he was around four years old.
Some 13 large works and 20 smaller ones will feature in the gallery display, supported by four school workshops.
He is primarily known as a puppeteer for children’s television and his partnership company made Channel 5’s Milkshake Monkey puppet and Ogri the puppet which featured on Ireland’s National postage stamp.
He said that his background in care meant childhood was a constant theme in his work adding: “I have always tried to keep the child in me alive. It is a bit like having two voices.”
Beachcombing and found items are also elements of his work. As in puppetry his work with the seaside postcards involves “bringing inanimate objects alive”.
The exhibition - Refreshing Seaside Memories - comes to Great Yarmouth from February 6-12.
Lately he has been using vacuum sealing to capture and preserve his work adding gemstones, baubles, jewellery and gold giving them the glint of a rockpool and the blur of memory.
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