A Faraway Cold Palace (广寒宫)
Katarina Sengstaken, Timea Tofalvi, Yuxiang Wen
Installation and Performance
We had a successfull performance and installation on March 11th, thank you everyone who came!
Please enjoy the videos of our performance as well as the creation of our project! <videoflash type="youtube">6M70SueSttI|340|275</videoflash> The Performance <videoflash type="youtube">nh5B8pQKP0o|340|275</videoflash> The Setup Process
Concept
The moon has come into focus again in the great Space race. It has been forty years since Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, now after the recent discovery of water on the moon a new interest has been sparked about finally heading back. In this new moon race has new contenders, the US and Russia are no longer in the lead. By 2015 it might be a Chinese man to be the next to step foot on the moon.
We conceptualize our project around dissolving the western ideals and myths about the moon and working with Chinese mythology and symbolism as our focus. Our concept of the moon stems from the three Chinese moon myths the story of Chang'e 嫦娥, Wu Gang吴刚 , and the Jade Rabbit 玉兔. These three myths revolve around a mystical laurel tree that grows on the moon.
Our project is not just an installation, but also involves a performance piece. The installation itself takes place in the Basement room of Marienstraße 5, where its floors will be covered with fine ash sculpted to look like the lunar surface. The archway in the room is covered and shaped into a crescent where luminescent blue light, represents a lunar earth-rise.
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Group photo of the artists
the performance
the performance
the performance
the space before the perfomance
costumes
Light with Ash
Installation Process
One small step for Timi
Creating the craters
the bags of ash
Brining in the Ash
Installation Process
Installation Process
Attaching the canvas to the frame
Lighting test
Creating a drop ceiling
The base for the craters
Meeting with the actors
The Sketch
Performance
Our concept behind the performance stems from the three Chinese moon myths Chang’e, Wu Gang, and the Jade rabbit. These roles shall be played out in our rendition, influenced not only by the space but also from our perception of these characters in contrast to modern moon missions.
The performance features the three Chinese mythological characters representing the Chinese moon mythology. The costumes and actions are stylized and simplified through our artistic rendition of their stories influenced by current events, mainly the discovery of water on the moon.
Their actions are slow and elegant as if they move at half speed. Their movements are defined by their characters, such as the chopping of the uncuttable tree, the mulling of the mortar, and the morning of Chang’e. The actors pantomime the gestures, and the sound is then played into the space.
The performance will last around an hour, with the chance for people to come and view the performance on the opening day of our installation. These roles will be played by Chinese students here in Weimar.
Installation
The room where we plan on creating our installation and making the performance in, is located under Merienstraße 5, at the end of a long corridor. One enters the room after making a turn down a corridor, and has to step into the space. The room features high ceilings with pipes, cement floors, and an archway to a small alcove.
We plan on working with the rooms unique architectural elements, such as the archway. We plan on blocking off the alcove and turning the bottom part of the archway into a horizontal crescent light. We plan on covering up a few of the rooms features, such as the piping and the circuit box with dark fabric so that these unnecessary elements do not interfere with the experience.
Artist Statements
A faraway cold Palace Installation is named after the translation from the Chinese moon mythologies.
In this installation we aim to bridge the gap and form an understanding of Eastern moon mythology, as a means of showcasing the Eastern, and Chinese new dominance of space exploration. Our installation and perfomance stems from the three major Chinese moon myths, the story of Chang’e, Wu Gang, and Jade Rabbit. For each of us the moon has a different meaning, our own social and cultural backgrounds had defined our perception of the Moon.
For an American the perception of the moon is something that has slipped out of our grasp. Like a lost love, the moon has moved on, and the close connection to the joy and happiness, the collective memory of the moon landing itself was before our generation. Our perception of the space program itself is just the precession of surreal celestial images, and tragedy because our image of astronauts stems from the space shuttles Challenger and Colombia disasters. The successes of NASA are all in the past, and I believe there to be a national sense of disappointment in the space programs declining role in leading the way in space exploration. An American perspective is that space represents another declining world leadership role for our country, and like so many things China has started to fill our shoes.
As a Romanian, I can't imagine that my country could have anything else to do with a space program, then as propaganda set up with no actual background. This could be a left over from our Communist era. I would say we were for far too long, following the Chinese model. So for my country to have any connection with any space project needs some help from a third party. Looking at the countries history I won't be surprised if we would keep our options open for both, East and West. So I see my roll in this project as a bridge between the two big cultural sides.
I guess all the Chinese people would be just like me, when they hear the word “Moon” they would first think of, Chang’e ,Wugang -the old mythology stories, not of modern science. However, one day, when we really get there, what would we find? Are we going to the future, or back to the future? -We will see.
The Moon and Chinese Mythology
Chang’e: is a Chinese goddess of the Moon. She left her husband and live along on the Moon. There are many versions of the story. The lunar exploration-orbiting spacecraft Chang’e 1 is named after her.
Woodcutter Wu Gang: is a character in Chinese folklore. He is known to ut down a self-healing cherry bay on the moon, punished by The Jade Emperor. But as fast as he cuts into the tree, it heals itself,and he never makes any progress.
Moon rabbit: also called the Jade Rabbit, is a rabbit that lives on the moon in Chinese folklore. It make medicine with leaves of cherry bay to healing sick people on the earth. It is often portrayed as a companion of the moon goddess Chang’e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her.
Related Video
<videoflash type="youtube">J9lLfaEdTMQ|340|282</videoflash> Chang'e in PekingOpera form -嫦娥奔月
<videoflash type="youtube">6Bo9l90vuUo|340|280</videoflash> Cremaster 5 - Proscenium Arch
Links to some Artist Websites whose work reflects similar ideas of what our space is going to be like
- Dan Flavin,
- Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster,
- Douglas Wheeler,
- Koo Jeong-a,
- Mathew Barney Cremaster Cycle