The Golden Reed Installation
For the 2nd project in the class “Out of Order Storytelling”, I worked with Rui Sheng to tell the story of Icarus and Daedalus. We decided to tell the story through performers moving through spacial and environmental design. As a visitor, one would move through the four rooms of the exhibition space to experience the retelling of this legend. Each room was designed to portray the emotional quality of that portion of the story.
See full slide deck here.
Press play to watch our presentation of The Golden Reed Installation.
Room 1
Father working on the necklace and the son working on the farm
Emotion: both father and son are satisfied with their work
Light: soft, hazy, comfortable
Environment: labyrinth structure made of golden reed, 3-4 feet high
Sound: reeds sound, birds
Room 2
Father and son begin their doomed adventure on the lake
Emotion: Hope, enthusiasm, tinged with trepidation
Light: Extremely bright, energetic
Environment: Bright 12:00noon sun (strong shadow), polished concrete
Sound: fierce birds, waves
Performance: audience enter on one side, look around at the performers on the spiral stairs then leave through another door , performer enthusiastically going up, blindly finding their destination, absurd,
Room 3
Son dies
Emotion: Extreme sorrow and regret
Environment: Stormy, dark cloud, flashing light, anxiety sounds
Sound: harsh wind, shepard tone, ghost ice frozen, moving-around sound
Architecture: decline floor
Performance: performer kneel down and knock the crack, rotating the mirror, with sorrow and painful face. Audiences are encourage to explore the mirror and ground-crack.
Room 4
Father returns home
Emotion: Peace, resigned to go back to his life, (everything he struggled for in his life did not come to pass), deep sorrow (must accept that he can do nothing about what happened), (he must have courage to carry on), (he had nothing to lose and yet he lost it), (a moment when he could give up for good, but he does not, he goes back home), partially-visible hope
Environment: Fog with light coming through, blue light
Sound: bird sorrowful, peaceful, still
Architecture: low and long stairs, go outside, the light coming through fog,
Performance: laid down for a couple of minutes, and then walk to next stair, slow and clam, mournful, audience passed by.