Objects Beyond Props
This is an investigation into the role of objects in performance design beyond props: as a starting point or core element of the design process.
Objects arranged
Joseph Cornell
Somewhere in the city of New York there are four or five still-unknown objects that belong together. Once together they'll make a work of art. That's Cornell's premise...
What interests me in Cornell's work is his ability to organise ordinary and seemingly random objects into compositions that develop their own meaning. It is easy to see the theatrical element to his work and I take a lot of inspiration from his use of texture and strong imagery. Something I also find fascinating is that when observing the piece there is that feeling that I am being immersed into it, that it works as a world unto itself without needing to be 50x larger and have the viewer actually walk into it.
Objects scaled
Paul Brown
Hippolyte et Aricie
Brown's interpretation of the opera is a good example of taking objects and altering them to create totally new context. By inflating the scale hugely the very ordinary image of a fridge becomes an absurd wonderland in which the story takes place. Similarly to Parker, this use of the ordinary makes the set easy to read and links to the audience's personal experience. What I love about this is how playful it is, it doesn't take itself seriously and manages to very simply create something original, funny and engaging.
Objects made of contrasting materials
Gavin Turk
Pile
Turk questions the value of 'art' through creating an object that society considers worthless from what is considered precious. In this case, rubbish bags out of painted bronze. I think this is interesting because it inverts our notions of reality. Not only is the worth suddenly put into question but also our perceptions of reality.
John Isaacs
I can't help the way I feel
I admire this piece of work for two reasons.
Firstly because of its intensely viceral nature, by distorting natural human forms the result creates something monstrous and yet very familiar. This has inspired my costume drawings in Iph... where I distorted bone elements to create armour.
Secondly, the piece is entirely made of polystyrene. The heavy physicality of the piece jars abruptly with its true weight. This changes how we understand it. The enormous contrast between how we read the piece and its actual physical attributes comment on how (as mentioned in the title) the image is not reality but feeling. This use of material to create metaphor is fascinating.
Objects as extensions of character
Felix Barrett (Punchdrunk)
the drowned man: a hollywood fable
What I find most fascinating about Punchdrunk's work is how each element of set is a direct extension of the character which inhabits it. There is a sensation that in every scene the character has just walked out, creating a tangible atmosphere of suspense. By manipulating the senses, sight, smell and touch suspend us in a fabricated reality that the body reads as true. This is so convincingly acheived that it is possible to understand the history and personality of the characters solely through experiencing their environment. This can raise the question as to the necessity of the actor at all.
Objects deconstructed
Cornelia Parker
Cold Dark Matter
Parker took the shed at the bottom of her garden, filled with years of hoarding of unloved objects and blew it up. By preserving each fragment, each becomes an object that forms an entirely different whole. It raises this idea of manipulating the ordinary to create the extraordinary. We can all read and understand the materials however what they mean completely changes. I think this is very useful in designing theatre because it creates a bridge between the character's world and that of the audience- common objects create common language. Once this is established it is then taken into the world of the performance to create or enhance the narrative of the performance.
Objects multiplied
Objects central to devising
Katrin Brack
Anatol
Brack is known for always ever using one object in her design, replicated to create abstract landscapes. What I enjoy about her work is how she toes the line between contemporary art installations and scenic design. Hill-Gibbons was inspired by her when creating Measure for Measure, the influence one outlined is obvious.
Miriam Buether
Measure for Measure
Buether's design for Measure for Measure at the Young Vic (Sept 2015) uses objects to create the central element of the set. Noatably hundreds of plastic blow up sex dolls. This enormous pile of dolls would be shifted to alter the space, yet was never directly refereced by characters. In my opinion not only did it work excellently visually, it acted as a strong
narrative element in establishing the context of the play. It is instantly apparent that it is a modern interpretation with sex being the core theme. Already the audience begins to read the play through this interpretation. It also links to the text in that the element of absurdity in Shakespeare's humour is physically represented by the... unusual sexual apparatus.
New Movement Collective & ScanLab & Oliver Coates
Station to Station at the Barbican
The process of devising and creating work in this collaboration is fascinating. A cycle is created. First Coates composes a piece of music, then the NMC coreographs dance in response. ScanLab captures a snapshop of that dance on camera, warps it then prints it in 3D. That object is then taken into the choreography and becomes the central focus. The object is removed. The choreography remains. The music begins to redevelop in response.
The collaboration not only produced a dynamic performance but also many sculptures in response to the dance and accompanying music. The cross-disciplinary nature allowed each to push limits not only in their own discipline but also pushing others in theirs. This idea of creating an object from a performance and making it part of a new one raised the idea of relics, memory and habit. With each new progression the old is left behind and feeds the new. I found it extraordinary.
This also raises this notion of objects in theatre that are created from performance as opposed to many of my other examples which are found or altered. This is a pure project of the work.