dark lightness. Under the Table world.

On the solstice I helped Nader with a show he was part of called 900 secondes.
The premise and world created reminded me of the "evil twins'" world under the table.

The theme was death but none of it was cliché. Based upon real experiences there was lightness involved in the darkness.
Nécropoles.




Me, Sarah Tracy & Sonja.


The Veils (there is another one on the other side) that Nader and I played under while the matches burned. There is a mannequin under for the moment while working on it ;)



This is Pascale who did a dance during a Mass wearing a cage dress with hubcaps attatched. At the end of the dance all the hubcaps were dispursed from the costume and hung around the room.




Match shrine to be cremation of a bird we found earlier in the week.


One of the dresses I made while working on a morgue table, creating/working on empty shells (costumes).

Yayoi Kusama

Since we are exploring themes of infinity and collidescope in a somewhat crazed atmosphere I thought I would introduce Yayoi Kusama.

Yayoi was an active artist in the 60s in New York and is now working in Japan. She lives in a mental institution by choice. She sees spots everywhere to infinity. She is 77 yrs old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

Yayoi now.


Yayoi in the 60's



I am especially inspired by her for set and costume elements..





This is a room, like a closet, but with this world inside. You step out onto a dock and its like being surrounded by rice patties with water all around and lights falling from the sky in strands. All this with mirrors on every wall to replicate to infinity every spark.


This reminded me of the secret lunchbox society ;) or could branch off into props (i.e. presents that the Twins exchange.. pandora's box)...


I thought this was pretty funny THE POLKA-DOT DIVA: A ONE-ACT PLAY



(p.s. Emma+ everyone,, she has also done performance art deriving from Alice in wonderland)...



Yayoi Kusama, Installation, Between Heaven and Earth,
Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo,1991,
Foreground, A Boat Carrying My Soul (detail), 1989,
Sewn stuffed fabric, wood 80 x 340 x 160 cm.
Center, Heaven and Earth (detail), 1991,
Sewn stuffed fabric, wood h.130 cm.
Background right, Stamens in the Sun, 1989,
Sewn stuffed fabric, wood, paint 240 x 561 x 19 cm.
Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan.











I have been thinking about costumes, and how they could be connected, or seeming to be...or at least the idea of their energies connecting personified into costume elements. I like how her sculpture dresses blob out like they are alive or are full of energy. In this way the costumes can also be manipulated through dance and movement and the actors are almost like live puppets. When/if we bring this show to Prague the next step might be to reduce the characters to puppets with prerecorded dialogue.






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

http://www.kunstverein-bs.de/y_kusama/werke.html

http://www.momat.go.jp/Honkan/Yayoi_Kusama/index.html

http://www.bombsite.com/archive/kusama/portfolio/index.html

http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/

This is neat in an Italian futuro cheese way,,, but good because it walks you around her installations.

I like the glowing ladder that has mirrors at either end. In the Italian dialogue I caught the word spirituality. I like how the Ladder joins the below and the above as it replicates itself in the mirrors.

Intuitive Response

Alice In Wonderland

Maybe it's a little cliché, but I immediately thought of tweedledum and tweedledee when reading the script, especially with regard to the evil twins. I found this clip from the animated disney movie, in which they are a little more friendly than I remember them in the book, but nonetheless, there was a lot that I loved. I like how they move together and almost appear to become one blob, then seperate and start to mirror each other's movements one would go up if the other went down, etc. When one is telling a story, the other acts it out, because they already know what's coming next. Their mischievous and cheeky attitude also reminds me of Oscar and Wisconsin. I see Alice as being similar to the Maid, because she seems to be the catalyst to much of the action. She is trapped and trying to escape this upside-down world, but must go on a journey before she can be set free.

I also got the image of a kaleidoscope from the play. The constant turning and changing of light, fracturing one image into a mirror of itself, then again, expanding and changing, but all from one central point that ties everything together. It is always symmetrical. One twin is another twin, and the two sets of twins are twins of each other, and all twins are twins of twins. It's always expanding, but in a mathematically even, symmetrical, controlled way.

some flowers in a kaleidoscope

City of Lost Children

Hi guys,

I watched this movie last night called THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, by Jeunet & Caro. It's freanch but you can have it translated in english as an option. It was so strange and awesome. There are several sets of twins, triplets and so on. There was one amazing scene where the twin ladies are cooking together. They are siamese twins but attached only at the hip. One would stir, the other would hold the pan. One would hold the cheese grater, and the other would grate the cheese. One would try the food, and the other would taste what the first twin ate and then add what the meal needed accordingly. This scene was amazingly choreographed and reminded me of baking the birthday cake. I think a scene like this would be a great addition to the piece because it shows the way twins work together and in a dance like choreographed fashion. I bet this movie would be at Le Boite Noir. Oh ya and the costumes are all designed by Jean Paul Gautier. Highly Recommended. So Weird. LOVE IT! Hope everyone is doing well,

Alarey

Here is the trailor for the movie: (Watch for the Twins that share a cigarette,, and the whole room of men with monacles that share the sensations of the bald man) ;)

Cake on fire.

Here is partly where the cake exploding came from, which happens at the end of the two parts of the play.


Todd and I are evil Twins in real life ;)
We came up with the same theme (mine for a play his for an album) while across the country without telling each other. (we also happen to share the same birthday.)


This Video is from a photoshoot done for The Winks. Their album theme/title is Birthday Party... When in Vancouver this past August I made a paper collage cake that was set on fire for this occasion.

Tyr and Todd are in this video having a picnic. Tyr is playing the Maid in Twin Party. Todd might play Denmark, one of the good Twins.

Intuitive emotional response

This pic of lolitas, that I made into a mirror image, was made while first beginning to write this thing. It could be seen as an intuitive emotional response.

I like how the two evil twins are separating the good twins. Achieving their goal maybe?

The background of people isnt quite appropriate, but i do like that it says tutu.

AND look in the middle,, what used to be a girl walking mirrored into what could be a cake. ;)

*****^^^^^^########^^^^^^*******
What was your intuitive emotional response (first reaction/thoughts that came to mind) to reading the script? This could be sound/video/image/gesture... ect..

Bettina the Maid

This is the Maid's past life or previous life to this situation.



I've been thinking about giving the Maid a shadow (or a Chorus of little maids)..