ARTISTS AMONG US
/NOT JUST PULLING STRINGS
Viktor Barkar - Puppet Master
Puppeteer Viktor Barkar and one of his many friends.
(click on any image on this page to enlarge)
by Karen Petersen
West Ender Viktor Barkar was born and raised in Minsk, Belarus, where he got his first taste of puppetry at the age of nine when he attended a performance at the State Puppet Theatre of Belarus. He was, evidently, profoundly entranced.
Viktor immigrated to Ottawa with his family in 1998 when he was 25 years old after he concluded a degree and internship at the Medical State University in Minsk in the Department of Public Health, earning himself the creds to become a Public Health Officer, specializing in epidemiology and toxicology.
Horsing around with a pal!
But Viktor has always had an artistic bent - most notably in the fields of sculpting and painting, and he studied graphic design at Algonquin College in Ottawa where he exhibited in the fields of painting and collage.
He fetched up in Vancouver in 2008. His motivation for the move? “I was chasing a girl...”.
In 2012, he was laid off from his job as a supervisor at Canada Post and dived con brio back into the arts.
Viktor studied sculpting for three years with Mikail (Misha) Pertsev (Pertsev Sculpture) and found himself not only focusing on the creation of small character busts, but speaking in their voices and, boom, naturally slid into the art of puppetry.
“It became clear I could do nothing else and this was the start of my self-discovery….”
And how did Viktor enter the field? He approached the Artists Resource Centre (ARC) in Vancouver, looking for people to connect with in BC, and began reaching out to anyone he could. Inevitably he discovered that children’s entertainment was the most obvious path for him to take and he began communicating with schools and community centres around the city and beyond.
His tenacity paid off.
Viktor’s oeuvre is vast - not only does he specialize in marionettes (and what a stable of characters has he!) but he’s also more than adept at both rod and hand puppetry, and body (or carnival) puppetry, as well as being adroit in the demanding field of shadow and gel work. He has designed and created over 35 puppets for his own puppet plays.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Viktor and his puppets were featured at the Museum Of Anthropology’s 2019 exposition “Shadows, Strings, and Other Things”, featuring 250 different puppets, both antique and modern, from 15 diverse countries. Viktor performed his marionette play, Four Sisters, about four characters who were born into a musical family, but were musically diverse. Each sister performed a tune that demonstrated her own take on the world and accompanied themselves on their own specific instrument.
For the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival, Viktor wrote and created “Baba Yaga and The Black Flower” based on an ancient tale from Slavic folklore, in which he voiced and manipulated all seven characters solo. In addition to creating the evocative marionette of Baba Yaga, Viktor also designed and created all the backdrops and props for this particular show.
His puppets and puppetry have been featured in multiple music videos, most notably for Andrew Cassara (“Fingertips”), Niel Blomkamp, and Tegan and Sara.
Viktor and his latest creation, Petrushka, a popular puppetry character known in the English speaking world as “Punch”.
Most recently Viktor’s art and craft were well-used in a Season 2 episode of the TV series Snowpiercer, which will be aired January 25.
Viktor is currently developing a retelling of that classic charmer “The Nightingale”, as well as focusing on the building and restoration of puppets, not only for himself and other puppeteers but for international collectors.
Viktor also teaches classes in this fine ancient art - presently online in these eerie plague months.
Please check out Vancouver Puppet Theatre for much, much more information on this neighbourhood gem known as Viktor Barkar. No strings attached.
