{"id":212,"date":"2011-01-23T14:40:57","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T01:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2015-10-10T08:56:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T19:56:35","slug":"2010-vessels-new-zealand-international-arts-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"2010 Wellington \u2013 Vessels: New Zealand International Arts Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

VESSELS: \u00a0NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL | <\/strong>2010<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Festival: New Zealand International Arts Festival<\/a><\/address>\n
Location: Museum of Wellington City & Sea \u2013 Wellington Museums Trust<\/a><\/address>\n
Dates: \u00a026 February – 21 March 2010<\/address>\n
Media: \u00a033 glass vessels of water, 2 vessels containing ash and gold leaf, metal frame, digital animations, sound<\/address>\n
Dimensions: 4000mm x 7000mm<\/address>\n
Music by Mark K. Johnson<\/a><\/address>\n

VESSELS<\/a> was commissioned and\u00a0 funded by the\u00a0Museum of Wellington \u2013 Wellington Museums Trust <\/a>for the 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival<\/a>. It was\u00a0a world premier interactive 4-movement multimedia installation\u00a0consisting of 33 vessels of water suspended upon the central atrium wall of the museum, illuminated by spotlights from above. The wall forms a backdrop upon which a myriad of water reflections emanate from the vessels.<\/p>\n

VESSELS was inspired by Dante<\/a>\u2019s early-14th century epic poem, Divine Comedy<\/a>, 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. (Purgatorio, Canto 2 of 33<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The installation – like the sacred island encountered in Dante\u2019s poem – is structured in 7 terraces: 7 lines of 5 bowls each. 33 of these glass vessels are filled with water and 2 are filled with blackened ash and shreds of gold leaf. The installation\u2019s 33 vessels represent the 33 songs (cantos) in the Divine Comedy Book 2 (Purgatorio). This interactive work symbolizes the threshold separating land and sea, light and darkness, time and eternity \u2013 the intermittent zone between life and afterlife. The piece is activated by vibrations emanating from the music and the visitors, witnesses to the world of souls. The installation and music are structured and presented in 4 movements \u2013 Vessel, Aquilon, Tidings and Innocence \u2013 which follow the thematic narrative of Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy Book 2 (Purgatorio), the discovery of the island and reaching the original Garden of Paradise above. The 5th and final movement was never performed.\u00a0 The movements represent the changing radiance of light experienced throughout the voyage.<\/p>\n

Original music by American composer Mark K. Johnson<\/a> 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\u2019s bell in the distance, warning of obstacles.<\/p>\n

\"I.Vessel-1024x684\"<\/a>I. VESSEL (4:24) The 1st movement suggests the light at sunrise. The music represents a boat’s bow slowly cutting through the morning fog sending out ripples of sound & light until the accumulating overtones break on the shore in a dissonant warning, only to commence again. In the mist a melody is passed back & forth between distant ships’ horns. This song on the wind is ultimately taken up in the tolling of distant ships’ warning bells as they witness the vessel’s passing.<\/p>\n

\"II.Aquilon-1024x682\"<\/a>II. AQUILON (5:41) The 2nd movement ‘Aquilon’, (which means north-west wind), represents the light at midday. In the music of the second movement, reflections of the wind and water converse with each other in song – first in echoes and imitation, and then evolving into a dialog of queries and answers on the duality of life and afterlife. As the movement comes to a close, it revisits the main theme from the first movement and foreshadows the themes of the third movement.<\/p>\n

\"III.Tidings-1024x682\"<\/a>III. TIDINGS (4:50) The 3rd movement represents the light at sunset. The title ‘Tidings’ suggests the\u00a0 movement of the tides as well as ‘foreshadowing’ the discovery of the Garden of Paradise. The music commences with the sounding of a single warning, accompanied by rumbling of waves of timpani. In the distance is heard the sounds of drifting voices, a hymn of falling sighs. Soon the voices incorporate the theme from the 1st movement into their song.<\/p>\n

\"IV.Innocence-1024x682\"<\/a>IV. INNOCENCE (3:18) The 4th movement represents nightfall and arrival at the Garden of Paradise. The music 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>V. INTO THE LIGHT (5:25) This 5th movement was meant to be heard to the ambient transformations of light emanating from the vessels. \u00a0It represents arrival into the light after moving through the darkness following the discovery of Paradise, as the movements of visitors to the installation and the overtones of the music created vibrations within the vessels and resulted in changing patterns of ripples and light reflections above.<\/p>\n

I. Vessel<\/strong>: “Then as still nearer and more near us came
\nThe Bird Divine, more radiant he appeared
\nSo that near by the eye could not endure him,
\n“But down I cast it; and he came to shore
\nWith a small VESSEL, very swift and light,
\nSo that the water swallowed naught thereof.”
\nDivine Comedy, Book 2, Canto 2, lines 37-42<\/strong><\/p>\n

II. Aquilon<\/strong>: “To the low shores mine eyes I first directed,
\nThen to the sun uplifted them, and wondered
\nThat on the left hand we were smitten by it.
\n“The Poet well perceived that I was wholly
\nBewildered at the chariot of the light,
\nWhere \u2018twixt us and the AQUILON it entered.”
\nDivine Comedy, Book 2, Canto 4, lines 55-60<\/strong><\/p>\n

III Tidings<\/strong>: “Little could there be seen of things without;
\nBut through that little I beheld the stars
\nMore luminous and larger than their wont.
\n“Thus ruminating, and beholding these,
\nSleep seized upon me, sleep, that oftentimes
\nBefore a deed is done has TIDINGS of it.”
\nDivine Comedy, Book 2, Canto 27, lines 88-93<\/strong><\/p>\n

IV. Innocence<\/strong>: “Here was the human race in INNOCENCE;
\nHere evermore was Spring, and every fruit;
\nThis is the nectar of which each one speaks.
\n“Then backward did I turn me wholly round
\nUnto my Poets, and saw that with a smile
\nThey had been listening to these closing words.”
\nDivine Comedy, Book 2, Canto 28, lines 142-147<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exhibition Construction and Project Management: Workshop e Ltd<\/a><\/address>\n
Assistants: Johann Nortje<\/a>, Nazia Kachwalla<\/a>, Andrew Charleson<\/address>\n
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VESSELS: \u00a0NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL | 2010 Festival: New Zealand International Arts Festival Location: Museum of Wellington City & Sea \u2013 Wellington Museums Trust Dates: \u00a026 February – 21 March 2010 Media: \u00a033 glass vessels of water, 2 vessels containing ash and gold leaf, metal frame, digital animations, sound Dimensions: 4000mm x 7000mm Music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[379],"tags":[34,169,316,311,383,382,7,20,314,313,318,15,17,310,168,141,18,22,315,418,317,312,380],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":232,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4720,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/4720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.danielkbrown.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}