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It is a great privilege to work with Joanna Haigood. She presents great physical challenges and artistic opportunities to confront issues of scale and time. As a rigging designer I am tasked to create a safe and spectacular system that places both performers and crew in positions normally reserved for mountain climbers and high angle construction workers. Keeping these systems spare and aesthetically compatible with the goals of the other artists is a challenge as well. The result can be a unique and astonishing performance environment.
I tried to design the rigging elements used to fly dancers and set objects to either disappear from view, or to blend in with the overall aesthetic of the show, and perhaps to contribute a layer of meaning as well.
As Set Designer I found myself in a peculiar position. Obviously, the terminal grain elevator building itself is an overpowering presence, and the vernacular industrial aesthetic couldn't be more appropriate to illustrate the fundamental framework of Ms. Haigood's piece. I wondered if I could express the operation of the elevators in some way, and to help expose the relational dynamic between grain production in the countryside and the accumulation of goods and surplus wealth, and the impact a city commercial center has on the urban population surrounding it, and how these relationships change over time. Of course, these are large questions to ask rigging and set pieces to help answer.
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