Dildrum

A small wax sculpture of Dildrum, about to leap up the chimney to inherit his new role as King of the Cats.

Talking Cat

Meet Talking Cat, my first little sculpture inspired by the title story of a new project based on Lancashire Folk Tales.....The King of the Cats. 

The story originates from Burnley, and

" tells of a man who was sitting quietly reading by the fireside one night when an unknown cat came down the chimney and called out: “Tell Dildrum, Doldrum’s dead!”, before disappearing back up the chimney. A few minutes later the man’s wife came into the room, followed by their own cat, and the astonished man told her what had just happened. Hearing this, their own cat exclaimed: “Is Doldrum dead?” Then it rushed up the chimney, and was seen no more. (This was taken to mean that Doldrum had been king of catland and Dildrum his heir.)

Lancashire legends (1873)

My plan is to make small viewing boxes around the characters that are the most intreaging , so that visitors can look through a small window to enter an imaginary place. I would like to explore ways of interacting with the characters; turning or sliding them, changing the light onto the scene or introducing props. But first I want to explore the characters, animals mostly; their form, pose and expressive potential.

So here is the unknown cat delivering his message: "Doldrum is dead!"