Wooden puppets from Nightmare by Dušan Marek

These wooden puppets are from the appropriately named short film Nightmare (AKA The Magician) by avant-garde filmmaker Dušan Marek. Marek was one of Australia’s leading surrealists. An artist, painter, draughtsperson and filmmaker, he fled Communist Czechoslovakia in 1948, settling in Australia with his brother Voitre. In Nightmare, these puppets with bulging foreheads and shifty eyes come to life in an Eastern Bloc-inspired bar. Their design combines traditional Czech marionettes with faces reminiscent of surrealist art. The effect is fabulously bizarre and unsettling, typical of Marek's wildly experimental films. Marek’s work defied the artistic conventions of his time and was often misunderstood in Australia. Tragically, he passed away the night before the National Gallery of Australia opened Surrealism: Revolution by Night (1993), a major exhibition that featured his work.