{"id":66450,"date":"2025-10-08T22:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/66450\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T22:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:24:10","slug":"paolo-puck-imagines-a-world-called-fliffmellington-and-its-uncanny-artifacts-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/66450\/","title":{"rendered":"Paolo Puck Imagines a World Called Fliffmellington and Its Uncanny Artifacts \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/paolopuck.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Paolo Puck<\/a>\u2019s imaginary realm of Fliffmellington, surreal characters come to life through elaborate costumes. Often weathered and tumbled-looking, a series of handbags, purses, and helmets glimpse a wonderfully weird world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m in the long process of faithfully recreating various artefacts from the world of Fliffmellington,\u201d Puck tells Colossal. \u201cLong-term, I will be making a book and short film, as well as an anthropological exhibition of the artefacts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1801\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-9.jpg\" alt=\"two sculptural handbags by Paolo Puck shaped like a radish and a pickle\" class=\"wp-image-463453\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The artist aims to highlight the world of Fliffmellington through its material culture, which often features motifs of expressive or abstracted animals and absurdly large vegetables. The overall costumes reference personalities like the \u201cGherkin God\u201d or an enigmatic, fantastical character named Celeste, who is associated with an organization called Jezilwik Grindlewax.<\/p>\n<p>Puck\u2019s approach to making detailed, wearable pieces is through the lens of archaeologist and conservator, as if the objects have been carefully excavated or recovered from a forgotten place, shedding light on an unknown culture.<\/p>\n<p>Enter Puck\u2019s uncanny world via the artist\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/paolopuck.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">website<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/fluff.faun\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, and find tutorials and making-of insights via <a href=\"https:\/\/fliffmellington.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Substack<\/a>. You might also enjoy Nikolas Bentel\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2023\/10\/nikolas-bentel-accessories\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hyper-bespoke accessories<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"3065\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-7.jpg\" alt=\"a metal helmet designed by Paolo Puck with a strange, chihuahua-like motif on the top\" class=\"wp-image-463450\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1448\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-8.jpg\" alt=\"two side-by-side images of a purse that looks like a narrow dog's head, with a mouth that opens at the bottom and an ear shape that is a flap on the top\" class=\"wp-image-463451\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"921\" height=\"852\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-3.jpeg\" alt=\"a small purse by Paolo Puck shaped like a round toad\" class=\"wp-image-463446\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1143\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-1.jpg\" alt=\"a sculptural purse designed by Paolo Puck in the shape of a fish\" class=\"wp-image-463444\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1043\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-2.jpg\" alt=\"a sculptural purse designed by Paolo Puck in the shape of a fish that comes apart as if it's been chopped into segments\" class=\"wp-image-463445\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1798\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-10.jpg\" alt=\"two sculptural purses by Paolo Puck shaped like a radish and a pickle, shown open, with the pickle purse containing a knife that is also shaped like a pickle\" class=\"wp-image-463452\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1629\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-5.jpg\" alt=\"a sculptural metal duck by Paolo Puck\" class=\"wp-image-463448\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/puck-4.jpeg\" alt=\"a sculptural purse designed by Paolo Puck in the shape of a disembodied head\" class=\"wp-image-463447\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"118516\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n<p>Hide advertising<\/p>\n<p>Save your favorite articles<\/p>\n<p>Get 15% off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.shop\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Shop<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Receive members-only newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Paolo Puck\u2019s imaginary realm of Fliffmellington, surreal characters come to life through elaborate costumes. Often weathered and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,7062,501,156,53660,111,139,69,53661,2194],"class_list":{"0":"post-66450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-costumes","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-garments","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-paolo-puck","20":"tag-sculpture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}