Faculty of Art

Sculpture/Installation

Nala Ren

梅花糕 | Mei Hua Gao

Mei Hua Gao is a dragon puppet designed and created using traditional puppetry techniques. He features a hinged jaw, a blinking eye mechanism, 3D printed claws, and a poseable tail. A prosthetic arm and hand are also worn during performances, to preserve the illusion of the dragon as a separate entity. In Chinese mythology, dragons are usually associated with water; in my personal canon, Mei Hua Gao is the spirit of the Yangtze River, the waterway that feeds the hundreds of canals in my hometown of Suzhou, China. The dragon’s features are based on the architecture of Suzhou’s iconic gardens, including the tiled pavilion roofs, the intricate open-air windows, and the still green waters. He embodies the mental double-take associated with experiencing magical realism, when a viewer questions if what they're seeing is real - if they are somehow witnessing a living, breathing dragon casually disrupting the mundanity of the day-to-day. Mei Hua Gao is the perfect companion for conventions and Renaissance fairs, or for snuggling at home on the couch.