Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Silence Awareness Existence program / JANUARY 2023
Gab Paananen
Australia
www.instagram.com/gabpaananen
About
Gab is a puppeteer, creature designer, sculptor, taxidermist
and natural history illustrator. She is passionate about
creating realistic creatures that tell stories through immersive
performance and designs mechanisms that capture patterns
in nature including the movement and behaviour of wildlife.
Over the past 10 years Gab has worked as a concept artist,
maker and has toured internationally on productions including
‘Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium’, Vivid Festival’s ‘The Liminal
Hour’ and various productions at Belvoir St Theatre, Terrapin
Puppet Theatre and Born in a Taxi. She has illustrated several
scientific papers as well as a book that has been published
internationally. She has spent many seasons rescuing and
rehabilitating injured wildlife on the NSW Central Coast and
has produced taxidermy and series of illustrations of critically
endangered species for wildlife organisations including
Zoos Victoria and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. The
movement, behaviour and anatomy of birds of prey as well as
patterns in nature are key influences on her developing work.
Olento
During her time at Arteles Gab developed concepts for new
sculptural works. With long walks in the forest and time in
the silence, these emerging concepts reconnect to the
slow movement of the breath. This included illustrations,
photography and creature designs that might inhabit the
snowy winter landscape both above and below the ice.