“A Delay in Glass” was a theater project initiated
by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio in the late 1980’s. The project was
inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors,” taking
the approach of a tragicomedy in which the objective was the “irreconcilability
of text and image.” The performance depicts 4 human elements, a bachelor,
bride, witness, and juggler, interacting the 3 constructed elements, the field,
apparatus, and mechanical bed.
What interested us most was the way in which the
characters were able to interact with the set. Abstract, yet incredibly
functional and straightforward, the set was designed within the three terms of “glass,
cut, and hinge,” each defining a characteristic that the set very successfully
embodied and communicated. The term “glass” was described as “a slow liquid,
continually molten, a reversible vantage and vanishing point.” The term “cut”
was described as “a section cut through time, through the moment of desire.”
The term “hinge” was described as “a generatx (a point, line, or plane that is
moved in a specific way to produce a geometric figure), a form of spatial
contradiction, a strategy of reprogramming.”
Physically, the set consisted of a field of
performance, which was split in two parts by a thick white dotted line on the
ground surface, creating front and rear spaces, relative to the audience. The
apparatus consisted of a tall rectangular steel pipe frame, which provided the
structure for its two essential parts, the concealing panel (an opaque plane of
rubber) and the revealing panel (a mirror). The concealing panel functions on a
swivel with its axis of rotation on the left column of the apparatus frame.
Able to rotate at 180 degrees, the concealing plane would move from the outside
of the frame to the performance space between the two columns of the apparatus,
acting as a barrier between the front and the back spaces, a separation between
the male and the female. The revealing plane, the mirror, was hung from the top
of the apparatus frame at a 45 degree angle, so as to provide a projection of
what the concealing plane was hiding. The mirror acts in a very interesting
way, projecting an upright, elevation view of what actually exists as a plan.
The abstraction that the mirror provides brings an incredible animation to the
performance.
Moving forward we are extremely appreciative and inspired by the abstraction that Diller + Socifidio’s apparatus provides. The movement inherent to the apparatus exists as a very unique and critical part of the performance, an attribute we are pursuing for our space. The relation that exists between the apparatus and the narrative is also something that we are working to acquire. Our initial idea, “the space is nothing without the play, and the play is nothing without the space,” is a constant focus of our development and research.
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