Amanda Slack-Smith, curator of Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of the Jim Henson Company, which is open in Brisbane, Australia until April. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Amanda Slack-Smith, curator of Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of the Jim Henson Company, which is open in Brisbane, Australia until April. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian Exhibitions In need of the warm and fuzzies? Joyous exhibition celebrates 70 years of the Muppets and the genius of Jim Henson Make, Believe, Magic show at Goma stars Elmo, Big Bird and the massive Mr Snuffleupagus – and gives visitors the chance to try their hand at puppeteering
It’s said that celebrities are often shorter than you might expect when you encounter them in person. The opposite is true of the Muppets.
“That’s the quote of this show,” says Amanda Slack-Smith, curator at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (Goma), where “Oh, it’s bigger than I thought it would be!” has become a catchcry among the Goma crew installing Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of the Jim Henson Company.
As we stand in awe of Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus – those gentle giants of childhood naivety from Sesame Street – it’s easy to see why. And maybe it’s my imagination, or the transportive power of whimsy unleashed, but I swear Snuffy just winked at me.
View image in fullscreen Jim Henson on the set of Fraggle Rock. Photograph: Bruce Macaulay/The Jim Henson Company Several years in the making, this joyous exhibition celebrates the unmatched genius of Jim Henson: writer, director, artist, puppeteer and creator of the Muppets. It features more than 500 objects – puppets, props, costumes, photos, sketches, storyboards and more – sourced from the Jim Henson Company’s extensive archive, plus several other US institutions.
Taking in the breadth of the company’s 70-year history, the exhibition charts not only Henson’s career, cut short by his unexpected death in 1990, but the body of work produced by his heirs, both literal and spiritual, who carry the torch for puppetry, animatronics and practical effects into the digital age.
Occupying Goma’s entire ground floor, the exhibition stretches over three realms, exploring the making, performance and possibilities of puppetry, respectively. As Slack-Smith guides me through the first rooms, it feels like, wherever you look, some fuzzy face returns your gaze.
View image in fullscreen Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus together inside Goma, Brisbane. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian Old pals like Grover and Elmo beam from their plinths, while lesser-known monsters and oddballs (for example, the creepy-cute cast of Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow, a Thanksgiving special from 2015) also get their time out of the archive and into the spotlight.
A decent handful of these puppets have never been displayed before. “This is the only second time that Snuffy’s been out of the US,” Slack-Smith says. When I ask how a sir of Snuffy’s length – 13 feet from trunk to tail – is transported from New York to Brisbane, she grins: “It’s a mystery.”
View image in fullscreen Kermit the Frog. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian Another hulking highlight shipped across the Pacific is Fraggle Rock itself. The subterranean set of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock – the 2022 reboot of Henson’s original 1980s series – sprawls across one room. We stroll from Doc’s workshop to the Gorgs’ garden to the Fraggles’ cavernous Great Hall, where every nook and cranny is seasoned…