A Poetry of Fragments: a gaze through the window [RCA_MA ARCHITECTURE_2020_ADS6]
Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage now exists as a preserved fragment of his artistic legacy and archive. A gaze through the window is a theatrical model that reimagines the mysticism of this hidden interior world, soon to be uncovered by the public.
Upon discovering Jarman’s forgotten stage designs in the V & A theatre and performance archives, fragments are reinterpreted into a cast of poetic characters that celebrate this legacy in a model space.
A Beached Glitterbug Shadow combines emerald floor tiles from the book of poetic acts with Jarman’s archway design for the 1968 production of Don Giovanni.
Delphinium Prospect Drapery references a drawing for the ballet Jazz calendar combined with an embroidered cape from iteration one.
Azure Monuments To Past Time are forms extracted from Jarman’s backdrop of Don Giovanni painted to match the painting series for a ballet.
The Shingle combines an image from the performative puddle piece with traced organic forms from Jarman’s designs for Jazz Calender.
A Gaze Through The Window is an interactive model, that allows the participant to understand and reimagine Jarman’s stage designs, both digitally and physically. Firstly as a digital model, A Gaze Through The Window exists as a scaleless and interactive space- its components can be re-arranged, re-sized or re-assembled according to the individual’s imagination and experience. As archival translations themselves, Characters can be played with and manipulated to imagine new narratives. The model remains in flux, and invites an adventure through absurd scales and curious theatrical abstractions.
As you weave across the stage, The Kingdom of Outremer looms behind, The Shingle lies scattered on the floor, A Beached Glitterbug Shadow appears to float in the space, the Gold Etched Billowing Clouds drift by the window...
Digital characters are then translated to physical. This collection of components is curated in a physical model space, as a reimagined archival stage set. The model can be unpacked and re-arranged from a box of parts, to be assembled amongst a world of ready-mades, as an unfolding gaze through a window of mysticism.