Label Text:
"At ground level, we find a strange sentry-like house whose door opens to reveal unexpected shafts of light and mysterious human mannequins. Eventually, a golden moon washes up on the beach like a melted Dali watch." – Frank Rich, New York Times, "Stage: Wilson's 'Golden Windows,' October 28, 1985
After collaborating with Christopher Knowles, Lucinda Childs, and Philip Glass in "Einstein on the Beach," Robert Wilson embarked upon "The Golden Windows," an avant-garde dream play, and this is a rare artifact from a theater event with few apparent visual records. Wilson was one of the nation's leading avant-garde theater directors: starting with his own troupe, the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds, begun after graduating from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn with an interior design degree. He became well-known for his innovative use of lighting and space and by the 1970s was performing regularly in Europe. His range was vast, from Noh plays to the life of Stalin; his 1995 Hamlet: A Monologue meditated on the moment of Hamlet's death, with flashbacks through 15 points in the play. He then staged a tribute to Martha Graham at the Kennedy Center and Gertrude Stein's opera Four Saints in Three Acts at the Houston Grand Opera. In the 1990s he also explored "art musicals" with Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and the books of Lewis Carroll. In 2004 he premiered I La Galigo, based on an Indonesian poem about the creation of the world.
Artist's statement:
This design is a preliminary working model for the set of my newest play, THE GOLD WINDOWS. The play is in one act, divided in to three parts. The physical setting remains the same, but is altered with light to indicate three different times of day: early morning, early evening, and midnight, not cecessarily in that order.
The play will premeir in 1982 in the United States and Europe. Rehearsals are takingplace for separate production in different countries, with different casts, each speaking their own language. - Roberts Wilson, Artifacts at the End of a Decade catalogue. © 1981
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=UM+1986.71.44 |
