The session began with an introduction to some of my own installations, in particular ‘and it all comes down to this…’ - in this piece I suspended 100’s of paper birds from the theatre rigging and illuminated them using focused coloured light. The air circulating in the space caused the birds to move creating flicking light patterns in the haze - I hoped this might provide some inspiration for working with paper.
We began by learning the basic folds to make the popular Japanese Paper Crane Bird. This was a tricky process that needed a steady hand and lots of patience! The group, however, were very focused, but some found it to be a frustrating process, especially after having to start over so many times. It became clear that Ian was rather skilled with the attention to detail and mastered the bird folds quickly.
We then explored the birds by hanging them onto the
mobiles. Sarah had continued to develop her own mobile between sessions and
added some rather intricate detailing with the inclusion of beads and chains. We decided to hang this in the larger space against
a plain white wall. Sarah and I took it in turns to document and light the mobile using a couple of torches.
We wanted to create a sense of movement by shifting the shadows, this meant
continually moving the torches and the body from side to side. This was our
first chance to really test out the concept of ‘movement’. The result proved rather striking – we made a
short unedited video and the shared this with the group - the effect was
mesmerising and elegant.
Karan continued to develop her angel mobile, Ian began
crafting a range of coordinated birds and Elaine also managed to stick with
the folding to create a good selection for hanging. We now have a range
of materials to take with us into the theatre studio to explore
light and silhouette in more detail next week.
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