About

Little Amal is the name of an 11.5-foot tall puppet created by Britain's Good Chance Theatre that in July of 2021 was led on a 5,000-mile walk from Turkey to London as part of an art project called The Walk meant to draw attention to the plight of refugees. After the project was included in a Twitter Events page, users on the site conceded that while it was an honorable project, the design of the puppet looked creepy.

Origin

On November 6th, 2020, the Good Chance Theater Company posted a video showing the creation of Little Amal, an 11.5-foot tall puppet meant to represent the plight of refugee children, who, with the help of her puppeteers, would go on an 8,000 km (5,000 miles) walk through Europe in the second half of 2021 (shown below).

On July 27th, 2021, the journey of Little Amal started at the Turkey/Syria border.^[1] The puppet was created by Handspring Puppet Company. The puppet's journey includes 70 stops in European cities and free events coordinated with local art collectives celebrating the local culture.

Spread

On August 9th, 2021, Time Out London^[2] posted a thread on Twitter outlining Little Amal's London itinerary (shown below, left). This was compiled on a Twitter Events^[3] page, bringing the puppet to a wider audience. After the Events page was posted on the front page of Twitter, users began remarking on Amal's design, feeling it was disturbing and uncanny. For example, Twitter user @BrandyJensen^[4] wrote, "i would make my giant puppet slightly less terrifying but that’s just me," gaining over 550 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References