Think back to the childhood tale of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Now imagine yourself in Alice’s shoes, thrown into an alternate fantasy world that exists with an entirely different perception of time. Nothing makes sense or is as it should be, and while time passes inside the world, when Alice wakes up and is returned to reality, hardly any time at all has passed. I want to create a “personal Wonderland,” some kind of small scale fantasy world that people can walk inside of and feel separated from reality.
This project explores the notion that fantasy creates an altered perception of time. When you are taken out of place, and enter a world where nothing is normal, time ceases to pass normally as well. Captivated by your surroundings, time passes in relation to this new reality. My creation of this fantasy world is meant to be an escape from the mundaneness of everyday life and typical passing of time. The project will either take place in some sort of large box setting a part of the room will be sectioned off and fully transformed into this Wonderland. The context of the Alice in Wonderland story helps the people experiencing it by allowing them to imagine themselves as Alice; falling down the rabbit hole out of their reality and into the one I have created.
I chose this concept because I love the Alice in Wonderland story, and I love the idea of creating a fantasy world from scratch. Developing this idea has allowed me to think about the different instances in children’s stories where characters are brought out of their normal lives and into a fantasy world where time is altered—Wonderland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Neverland (Peter Pan), Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia), Oz (The Wizard of Oz), etc. The idea of Alice in Wonderland was the starting point for my concept, but it is not my only source of inspiration.
some images for inspiration
some images for ideas of how I might make the setting
initial sketches
connections to open works examples posted
- I see a connection to Soo Sunny Park’s installation in the way that she transforms a space and creates a colorful, whimsical feeling
- I also see a connection to some of the works in the Open Space 2014 show in the ICC Gallery Tokyo because some of the artists there made installations that take the observer inside a space that the artist has created to appear a certain way
http://www.artnews.com/2014/11/13/kenny-scharf-cosmic-cavern-museum/
This is the Kenny Scharf thing I was talking about.
QUESTIONS: How does the experience of a place impact your perception of time? What elements change our experience? Will you directly reference Alice or will you use it as a point of departure? What kind of space might work best for an install like this? It is great to see your materials references, what might you be able to generate in the bulk you will likely need?
REFERENCES: Alice by Jan Svankmeier; Alice by Robert Wilson and Tom Waits; Lygia Clarke – The house is the Body; Bruce nauman – Performance Corridor; Jesús Rafael Soto; “sensorium”
MORE REFERENCES: Jesus Rafael DeSoto; Ernesto Neto
Will you use any sound to enhance the differences between the outside world and your fantasy world? There is a lot of interesting music and sound used in Alice in Wonderland.
What are you ideas for lighting? Will only one person be able to enter at a time?