IV. Innocence

VESSELS IV “INNOCENCE” : New Zealand International Arts Festival | 2010

VESSELS was a world premier interactive multimedia installation commissioned by Museum of Wellington City & Sea – Wellington Museums Trust for the 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival. It consists of four movements: I. Vessel, II. Aquilon, III. Tidings, and IV. Innocence

VESSELS was inspired by Dante’s early-14^th century epic poem, Divine Comedy, which predicted that directly opposite Jerusalem in the great oceans of the southern hemisphere lies an island, above which shines a constellation of four stars in the shape of a cross. Atop this island sits the original Garden of Paradise. The mythological location of this island is where New Zealand now lies. According to Dante, an angel in the form of a divine white bird eternally pilots vessels of souls from the underworld to the island shores. Ripples of light emanate from the vessels, so radiant that the eye can barely endure them.

The fourth movement, arrival at the Garden of Paradise, uses a theme from a 12th century Gregorian chant. In this final movement, ‘Innocence’, a memory of a simple tune is conveyed through a child’s toy piano naively played without guile or rhythmic variation, while the eternal sea of the underworld echoes portions of the melody as it ebbs, flows and churns in wait of the next turning of the cycle of life. (Duration 3.18)

The movements of visitors and the overtones of the music created vibrations within the vessels and resulted in changing patterns of water ripples above. This interactive work represents the threshold separating land and sea, light and darkness, time and eternity – the intermittent zone between life and afterlife. The piece is activated by the touch of music and the touch of visitors, witnesses to the world of souls.

Original music by Mark K. Johnson established the sounds of a ghost vessel silently approaching the shore, and then eternally receding once again. The music contained the whispers of the tide; the sounds of the sea repeating in endless cycles; the haunting echoes of a ship’s bell in the distance, warning of obstacles.

Exhibition Construction and Project Management: Workshop e Ltd