Wind

Wind is a vintage, lightweight, one-person giant puppet created in the late 1990s in the tradition of Bread and Puppet–style community and political theater, where large-scale handmade forms move through public space as living symbols rather than static objects. Evocative, playful, and powerful, Wind represents breath, movement, change, and the invisible forces that shape the world around us.

Designed to be animated in open space—where air, motion, and gravity become part of the performance—Wind is less a character and more an element made visible. The puppet was later gifted to ArtJoy’s Giant Puppets Save the World, where it continues to be restored, cared for, and performed as part of a living collection of heritage street-theater puppets.

Materials & Construction

Wind is made entirely from recycled and repurposed materials, using non-toxic, accessible methods rooted in the Bread and Puppet tradition of radical, low-cost, community-built art:

• Structure: Lightweight wooden frame mounted to a backpack harness for one-person operation
  
  

• Form & head: Built using papier-mâché techniques
  
  

• Body & surface: Sewn from recycled vintage bedsheets and fabric
  
  

• Finish: Painted with leftover non-toxic latex house paint
  
  

This construction makes Wind lightweight, durable, and highly responsive to movement, allowing the puppeteer to animate it with sweeping, swirling, and floating gestures.

Size & Movement

Wind is a full-scale giant puppet designed to read clearly from a distance while remaining nimble and fluid in motion. It is balanced for single-operator performance using a backpack-mounted frame, and is especially striking when performed in outdoor settings where real wind, light, and space become part of the choreography.

9’ Tall

History & Living Presence

Created in the late 1990s, Wind comes from a formative era of West Coast giant puppetry when street theater, protest art, and community ritual regularly spilled into public space. Now under the care of Giant Puppets Save the World, it continues to appear in parades, festivals, and site-specific performances—bringing visibility to something normally unseen.

Wind is not an object meant to be observed from a distance. It is a moving atmosphere, a presence, a force—a reminder that some of the most powerful things in life cannot be seen directly, only felt through their effects.