Punch and Judy: Our Demons 

Curator: This mixed-media artwork is titled "Punch and Judy: Our Demons" by Miriam Schapiro. It incorporates acrylic paint along with collage elements. Editor: My first impression is playful chaos. The vibrant colors, like splattered graffiti, give it an almost childlike energy, but those dark figures lurking around the edges... there’s something unsettling beneath the surface. Curator: It's intriguing to consider that juxtaposition, isn’t it? Schapiro’s work often explores the intersection of folk art traditions and contemporary social commentary, placing figures from Punch and Judy within a broader art historical context that incorporates graffiti-style abstraction. Editor: I feel like I'm peeking into a particularly manic episode of a puppet show. Punch and Judy, yeah, it is supposed to be silly but is it just me, or has Schapiro captured something genuinely unnerving? All those shadowy figures, as if their world is surrounded by darker impulses, some more overtly bestial than others, that lurk there in the periphery ready to pounce when our main character is vulnerable enough to do so. Curator: That darker side speaks, I think, to the broader symbolic dimension here. Punch and Judy are stock characters, symbols of a violent domesticity normalized within a very specific history of performance. What is this legacy and history teaching us, Miriam is prompting us to think. It can become the mirror of us reflecting on those demons to see if they might also reflect upon our nature Editor: Yes exactly. But what demons is the artist prompting us to consider? I see the duality; a public performance contrasting our darker personal nature within this domestic space, framed but somehow unable to fully contained that energy which threatens to break its frame and corrupt those characters in its thrall? Is it also suggesting, like her own biography does, a struggle for women and their identities, their roles being undermined and not allowed self expression? Or does it also speak about the potential for men as well, equally victims here in our demons being revealed as if within an ever corrupting influence of Punch's own demons that we all succumb to within our societal pressures. Curator: And in presenting them in this dynamic almost agitated composition Schapiro, rather then simply displaying them or their history also interrogates it directly. I wonder is Schapiro speaking specifically or does this apply to modern life too? The painting allows us as viewers to think more deeply about this narrative and allow us to see that as a piece of work and artifact Punch and Judy, and its cultural legacy isn't something we accept blindly but scrutinize for the lasting cultural and social effect we wish it to now carry with us into the present and forward Editor: Yes I find that compelling. Well I certainly have a lot to think about next time I see those glove puppets appear! The real horror show starts when the lights come on!