A selection from our personal bookshelf: Paul Insect & Bäst – The Rubbish Puppeteers | 2022
Published by Beyond the Streets
252 Pages
21 x 28,6 cm
English
First Edition of 1000
BEYOND THE STREETS Publishing is pleased to announce The Rubbish Puppeteers, a comprehensive hardbound follow-up to 2019’s zine by the same name. The Rubbish Puppeteers offers an in-depth look into the artistic synergy between London’s Paul Insect and Brooklyn’s BÄST (born Michael Polimeni) –Paul’s frequent collaborator and dear friend who unfortunately passed away in early 2021.
The Rubbish Puppeteers comprises over 250 pages filled with 300+ images of the duo’s Fly Tip Theatre puppets, who were mutant creations made by Paul and BÄST’s shared love of puppets as kids. Without experience in traditional puppet making, they crafted the puppets from found and recycled materials over a period of close to 10 years, with characters often referencing music and graffiti culture and personas based loosely on celebrities, cartoons or those observed while people watched.
“Mike Bäst was an artist who somewhat avoided the limelight, someone who was happy walking the beaches of Coney Island picking up trash, working in his studio, and avoiding emails. You would be let into his world if he felt comfortable with who you were and what you were about. This book shows many of the random videos, stop motions, paintings, costumes, performance works and puppets we made mostly from rubbish found on the street between the years of 2012 and 2021. Mike is dearly missed—missed for his uniqueness, generosity, energy and the passion he had for his art form and studio work, and for his unique wild style he forged out in the streets of New York for over 30 years.” shares Paul Insect.
The Rubbish Puppeteers is published by BEYOND THE STREETS and is now available for purchase online at beyondthestreets.com and through select booksellers worldwide. (from editor)
