Curtains​
Team Members: Serena, Gulia, Julie, Amrit
Abstract:
Curtains is a performance art piece which aims to replicate naturally occurring light patterns.
Stuck in our homes at these weird times, we start seeing beauty and magic in the smallest things, especially the things that we now feel deprived of. For this project, we were inspired by our “moment of magic,” an improvised dance that the sun chooses to perform in our rooms almost everyday, using the lights, that enter through the curtains on our windows, on the walls and the floor as its performers. Reminding us of the beauty of the outdoors and bringing attention to the new. Focusing on these light patterns create a sense of defamiliarization, as we don’t pay attention to them normally. Isolated, our fixations on the banal and unknown become significant parts to our routine.
With ​Curtains ​we try to recreate just that. Showing something as natural as the sunlight produced by utterly artificial things such as plastic and flashlights in dark spaces. Attempting to enhance the perception of what is familiar to all of us and bringing attention to it.
The work includes a series of directions that instruct how to create structures out of household objects. These structures are used to manipulate and interact with light. These objects include common utensils and tools, as well as personal items unique to each individual space. Along with the directions, we made a short film documenting the original and reimagined performance. The film is to provide a visual example of the production and give it a sense of duration. It is accompanied by ambient sound captured during the nighttime, as we filmed our performances while there was no natural light. We welcome the viewer to follow the instructions provided and participate themselves, using our tools and ideas or creating their own.The objective is not to identically replicate, but to recreate and reinterpret someone else’s “moment of magic.”
