kskelley@lsu.edu
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ALCHEMY HOUSE |
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| Earth Room | |||
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"The walls of the main room are thickly caked with mud from floor to ceiling. The earth was dug up directly from the backyard. On the wall above the garden (which at one point was harvest to a crop of corn) is an 'androgyny figure' painted in bright yellow and blue encaustic... In the'Earth' room, we found Amy Ell, soiled, curled in a corner, then rolling to the garden, resting face-down on its mound, like the evening's first casualty." | ||
| Copper/Sulpher Room | |||
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"Copper pennies embedded in the yellow bedroom walls, create swirling, rippled shapes. The alchemical symbol for copper is cut into the wall, while sulfur fills it's symbol carved into the floor.... Matthew Shakespeare is in a blue gown, bound to the wall by strips of fabric. Methodically, he continued glueing pennies to the wall throughout the evening." | ||
| Salt & Lead Room | |||
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"The living room walls are treated with salt.... Havel even rigged a leak in the roof to drain into a lead pan in the 'Mercury' room, travel through the wall, spill into a large lead cone, and drip into a large salt block below the suspended cone.... Visible through triangular, mud-formed holes in the wall, were arms and legs dangling from holes cut in the ceiling. Covered in white powder, they were motionless, ghostly, stunningly spooky and vulnerable." | ||
| Mercury Bathroom | |||
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"A section of wall in the bathroom is corrugated tin; the rest, including sink, toilet, and bathtub, is painted a shiny silver.... The 'Mercury' room was peaceful enough until one noticed Tracy Heller in the silver bathtub, facing a small mirror on the wall. The tight space accented the awkwardness of watching Heller turn slowly, showing off her long, wizened beard. She looked good." | ||
| Cosmic Furnace Kitchen | |||
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"Another tight enclosure, the kitchen was the most theatrical as well as gruesome. Karey Rawitscher, in silky red, dissected small animal insides. In the corner, merging with Tobey Topek's wall of decay, sat Joe Bear, nude, dust covered. The most physically revealing, he appeared the least real.... Things appeared to be getting out of hand when Bear was laid upon the dissecting table. I exited." | ||
| Backyard | |||
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"Just when we thought we had seen it all, leaving the kitchen for the backyard brought us face to face with Kelli Scott Kelley perched high on a mound of earth and grass surrounded by a moat. Barely visible beneath a white gown, hat and veil spotted with red splotches, Kelley, also bearded, rotated unnaturally; arms outstretched, eyes frozen - puppet-like, but commanding." | ||
ALCHEMY HOUSE by Dan Havel Performances by Kelli Scott Kelley Sound Design by Bill Kelley Text by Mark Frohman |
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