A Light Touch

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The two light installations featured here are part of a series commissioned for contemporary theatre productions by Teatrocontinuo, based in Padova.

Fra Terra e Acqua (2005)

A production in which the journey (between historical sites in the lagoon of Venice) was as important theatrically as the set pieces at destinations, not unlike Peter Brook’s Mahabharata in the quarry near Avignon.

Part of this journey was by passenger ferry, which allowed the opportunity to use the motion of the vessel. I created hanging, plasma-etched copper light forms that projected key words from the production’s text into water-covered convex mirrors, reflecting them, swaying and vibrating, overhead.

Bastion of the Impossible (2005)

Part of Padova’s 15th century outer defensive wall, the “Bastion of The Impossible” survived intact until WW2 when the English, bombing in lines to hit Padova station, inadvertently dropped a bomb through the roof. This killed 200 people who were using it as an air-raid shelter. The movement of the air (lifting the entire vaulted roof and setting it down again) killed the victims – not the force of the actual explosion. Teatrocontinuo produced “Scudo di Pietra” outside this location and the installation was part of the pre and post-show visitor experience.

“Crossed Target” marks the exact spot where the bomb landed. It is a circle made of white, blown rice, delicate enough to be moved by the slightest breath of air. “City Lights” was the final piece, in pitch- blackness at the end of the tunnel system. The two hundred beams, reminiscent of anti-aircraft searchlights, represent every life lost.