Friday, November 7, 2008

Where Will Elation BE???

I am not sure if I receive the grant, where in the park Elation would be best suited to be built . I think it is best to imagine a space as large as the one the sculpture in this picture inhabits.

I am influenced by Noguchi and his innovative ideas of sculptures inhabiting spaces as being part of the landscape. He was commissioned to install sculptures in many parks. One of the grants' theme for Socrates is "State Parks" and can be interpreted in a broad way.

I envision this theme to include Elation as a ride/attraction at a state fair to invite people to have fun and experience the joys of childhood. I do want it to be interactive. However, perhaps there could be a performance over the summer when they have a film festival, to show an individual who gets trapped in the hole and then emerges to join others dancing above the hole which represents isolation. This could be projected onto a large screen so the audience could see how one may isolate and then emerge from a depression to ELATION.

2 comments:

Wanderer said...

Great blog entry Nancy. I'm starting to get a real feel for Elation. I love the idea of Elation being a ride/attraction at a state fair. This is a little off the track, but I remember going to a city amusement park in Toronto when I was twelve with my parents and IT was interactive. At twelve I was still enough of a kid that I wanted to play really badly, but the side that wanted to be more adult kept resisting (plus it was off season and not many people were there, so it was less festive). There was also in Toronto an interactive science museum particularly for kids and I thought it was fascinating, though I didn't understand much of it.

I also like your idea of showing a film about going from depression (literally & figuratively) and isolation to elation/freedom. It sort of echoes a hell into heaven theme. I think you're seeing it vertically, but you could also see it horizontally, instead of a hole there could be a tunnel which goes from light to more and more dimly lit and more and more cushioned, maybe more and more claustrophobic, like a suffocating womb just before birth maybe. Somehow the experience has to be negative if people are going to get the idea of depression.

Yes, I think that makes sense--start out in the light and open space, then reverse birth, a narrower and narrower space, a darker and darker space until you are trapped in a small, circular room, maybe then you could go up using a ladder or spiral that gets gradually lighter and wider till you are out in the daylight with the sky before you. Not sure how this turns into an interactive state fair/playground, but I'm sure it could, maybe after crossing water to symbolize going far (crossing the ocean to get from one side to another.)

Sorry, I went a little overboard, but I was just having so much fun envisioning Elation. What a great idea and project! It seems more like a performance piece than just a sculpture to me.

You know the yin/yang symbol fits here, and bi-polarity, and heaven and hell.

Your blueprint of Elation is going to be great.

Kate : )

nancy said...

Kate,

Thank you for taking the time to write so much and in so much detail. Your comments are so interesting.

Nancy