video: Brown’s “How To Build A Forest” Interactive Art Launches Feb 27
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
A forest of beautiful fabric "trees" will be built at Brown University's Granoff Center, and then destroyed in only 30 minutes. See it all happen Feb. 27-28. Photo: Paula Court
How to Build a Forest
Wandering through the brightly-illuminated and multicolored trees of the hybrid art installation How to Build a Forest, the ethereal and beautiful forest seems inspired by a fairy tale, rather than one of the worst natural disasters in American history. But throughout the course of the eight-hour creation and then systematic dismantling of the fabricated forest, the members of the collaborative team PearlDamour + Shawn Hall, remind us that even when we live in cities we are tied to the fragile natural world in intimate and devastating ways.
How to Build A Forest was conceived in response to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where the artists are based. It begins on an empty stage, where over the course of 6 1/2 hours D’Amour, Pearl, Hall and their team of builders obsessively work to construct an exquisite, fake, fabric forest. Audiences are invited to come and go at any point during the build, and can observe the action from seats outside of the project, or from within the forest itself. Audiences are also able to interact with helpful forest rangers who offer guidance, and will encounter other choreographed elements and quiet spectacles that come together to create this temporary, living ecosystem.
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But once it's complete, it barely lasts. The completed forest exists for only 30 minutes; after that time deconstruction begins and in just one hour the forest is cleared and the space is empty once more.
Obie Award-winning PearlDamour is the interdiscipinary performance-making duo Katie Pearl (nationally recognized director and current Brown MFA student) and Lisa D'Amour (Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright). Shawn Hall is a nationally exhibited painter and installation artist.
Watch a time-lapse video of the installation, here.
HOW TO BUILD A FOREST by PearlDamour and Shawn Hall from katie pearl on Vimeo.
How to Build a Forest is sponsored by Brown’s Creative Arts Council and the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. The installation is free and open to the public. All ages are encouraged to attend.
How To Build a Forest will occur twice at Brown University's Granoff Center: February 27 and 28, 2013 from 2pm-10pm.
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