Annual Spotlight

Monday, September 6, 2021
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Window on Hudson
43 S. 3rd Street
Hudson, NY 12534
Spotlight: Jacob Graham, Puppetry & Installation

Jacob Graham is the Brooklyn-based artist behind the critically-acclaimed puppet film series The Creatures of Yes. Growing up in northeast Ohio, he dabbled in magic and the circus arts, and experimented with music and video cameras before ultimately focusing on puppetry. After high school, he worked for a decade as a puppeteer with Walt Disney Entertainment while refining his writing and performing skills at local puppetry showcases and improv nights put on by Heather Henson.

Jacob began The Creatures of Yes in 2015, and it soon after became part of the VICE Creators Project. The Creatures of Yes films have been shown at film festivals around the world including Series Fest 2017, where judge Charlie Sextro of the Sundance Film Festival gave it a ”SUPER DUPER honorable mention,” describing it as “a weird puppet delight”.

Part comedy, part social commentary, The Creatures of Yes is also an experiment in time travel, using equipment from the late 1970’s or earlier, and in particular a cathode-ray tube camera with its various artifacts and ghostly vapor trails. While the aesthetic owes a lot to early public access television, the overall effect of the show has often been described as mystical, and familiar yet otherworldly; it is certainly as influenced by the films of Jean Cocteau and Kenneth Anger as it is by Jim Henson’s early work.

Jacob and his company are currently working on the first Creatures of Yes feature length film.