D G H O R HO A P IC S T O POG R A PH ICS Hay li e Shum Ar t Por t fol i o
Black Box Theatre Installation: The Elevator
This is a collaboration project with the creative writing students in the University of Hong Kong. Each group is given a story and an installation is built corresponding to the story for a drama performance.
Shot taken looking up from the inside of the elevator Photo taken by Tang Kam Hong, Kenneth Collaborations project with Landscape Architecture students Chan Lok Tim, Lee Ying Chik, Mak Sui Hin, Poon Yan Lam, Saw Yu Nwe, Shum Hiu Lam Haylie Creative Writing students Amanda Caterina Leong , Chang Yu Ting :, Cheung Lai Sum Lesley, Gabriel So, Lau Cinzia Kwun Chee, Wong Lok Yin Jessie
The Story I am in this box of contingent intimacy with strangers. Their faces project into mid-air and bounce between the reflective walls, the way air particles collide fiercely in compressed space. Gravity has taught me how to cope with falling. But we never come to terms with that, do we? You hear the beep. The door opens. It’s a slow opening, like a curtain sweeping away. The backs of people, the tail of a crowd, rush out through the opposite door. The gap closes quickly. A gush of hot air weighs on your skin. You breathe it in. The dark grey fades out on all sides, along with the previous evening. Creamy green walls reach out. You are wrapped in the color of freshly brewed matcha latte, with a hint of roasted soybean powder. The far corner pulls in, where the metallic buttons are. There is refuge in a narrow shadow, the only space that escapes the strong, white lights overhead. There is more to come: patter, stomp, shuffle, and tap, cacophony and a peculiar rhythm. You find a comfortable surface, maybe, to lean against. Something is spilling out of me, and, slowly but steadily, my heart rises to collect it. Is it the power point in half an hour? That guy you are meeting in Starbucks? Or your book that is overdue for three months? The braille carvings on the elevator buttons come into focus. The patterned metallic dots, the precisely spaced-out elevator labels and the symmetrically lined up buttons compress onto a tidily framed surface. It is beautiful, the orderliness. It is strangely comforting but also an irresistible temptation to disrupt this neatness. The imagination runs wild - the carvings transform themselves into worms, the dots reshape themselves into edged squares and pointed triangles. Your fingertips want to trace its uneven surface. The curves, circles and lines of each alphabet on the elevator labels. The mini televised screen on top lights up. How busy do people have to be that they need to receive information even in elevators? A handbag pokes into your ribs on your right. You are pushed against the walls. The tip of your nose almost touches the metallic surface of the buttons. You turn your head around like an owl, while your body stays paralyzed. Faces and bodies are piling up on. Your back warms up. The doors close in and the clamor is sucked out. The doors clasp together, searching for the right angle to click. An amplifier from nowhere spits out something. For a split second, the floor presses up and releases, and the elevator is off the ground. The rush of adrenaline gushes up from your kidneys and into your bloodstream. I feel spiritually synced as the elevator’s air sinks into me, fuses and becomes part of me. I remember ice cream-smeared roller-coaster rides with my mother in amusement parks: that thrill of rising and not daring to look, that disorientedness. I am pulled upwards, my body caves in, for a moment elongated. Do I fade little by little on each elevator ride? The machinery of movement reminds me how little my frail body can contain. Is it me, or do others feel the same? Landing, back onto the ground, sooner than expected. We piece back together our disjointed arms, our fractured legs, our twisted lips, our revolving eyes. We rejoin fragments of a puzzle to form a tight picture again. Our heart sinks back in its usual place. We regain foothold on solid ground and keep very still. The air stands still, while our muscles are aching to move. The metallic curtain sweeps open. Bright lights expand. With a push of my leg, I leap through the metallic threshold, a HKU student, like an unscrewed cork. We turn our heads around like an owl awakening, our body awakening.
Design Process
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The first concept was developed from the juxtaposition of the confined space and the infinite expansion of the horizontally installed mirrors at the sides of the elevator in the MTR. The stainless steel columns are abstract representation of passengers in the elevator, and thus, having different heights and thickness.
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The upper part of the elevator became bigger than the bottom is to signify the infinite expansion of the horizontally installed mirrors at the sides of the elevator.
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The second concept is a refinement of the previous one, in consideration that mirrors might be hard to manipulate. With an attempt to intensify the contrast between the physical confinement of the elevator and the liberation of the mind, we developed mini-elevators exaggerating the spatial confinement, while the hanging beads create a world of fantasy at the top.
Drawings of the Elevator The finalised design resolves to develop a consistency in design in terms of the use of materials. The elevator walls gradually decompose into fragments as the height increases. The fragments diminish from large fragments into smaller ones and finally into transparent pieces. The transformation of the elevator denotes the transition from the restricted reality to the liberated thoughts and imagination.
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4,5 The projected overall design of the
fragments on different sides. The different colours are representing different use of materials. Red fragments are composed of MDF, the yellow fragments
6,7 Diagrams showing the nails, screws
joints and positions
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Process of Constructions 1
Testing of the nailing method on plywood.
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Testing of the laser cutting. The words are too small to be cut and we have to change it to engraving instead. The words therefore cannot be painted as the one in the real MTR elevator.
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Close up of the tying of the acrylic pieces. This is the way it is tied so that it won’t move too much when there is wind blowing.
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Tying of the acrylic pieces. 1
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Details 1 Footprints stuck inside the elevator to indicate the compacted space inside the elevator. 2 Floor signage, buttons and the internal wall decorations are replicated to imitate the interior of the elevator. 3 Close up of the top frame. 4 Fragments of MDF and acrylic hung from the top frame.
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Performance
A Hodology of Daily Topographies Cornell box is originated from the American artist Joseph Cornell. In these boxes he projects his memories of a common place into works of art. My final Cornell box with an acrylic cover, displaying my cognitive mapping of the 2/F of Knowles building, a space of my arrival at the HKU campus
Right The acrylic cover was to replicate the experience of multiple reflections made by the glass panels within the space on the 2/F.
2/F Knowles Building The University of Hong Kong 1973- Ongoing The moment that I feel I have arrived the HKU campus is when I stepped into the entrance of Knowles Building on the 2/F. The space gives me an intense and a spooky feeling every time when I pass by it. Right & Bottom Photos of the entrance/back stairs on the 2/F of Knowles Building
Design Process
1 First I have recorded down my experience of crossing the 2/F floor of the Knowles Building by taking photos inside the space. I then printed them out and start to look at the details of the space and think through what has influenced my feeling towards the space. 2 The signboard that I have recreated. Some of the text is replaced by the scientific definition of the fluorescent lamp that is used on 2/F. 3 The collage I have made as a background of the Cornell box. It is composed with the buildings that are built or opened on 1973, which is the same year that the Knowles building was built. 2
4 The final Cornell box without the acrylic cover. 5 A perspective showing the details at the top of the box. A lighting is added to recreate the lighting environment in 2/F. The signboard and the 2 sign are also recreated to signify the space. The 2 sign is made with the exact dimensions in 2/F to reinforced its prominence and significances.
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Final outcome 50cm
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A perspective showing the details of the stairs. The pattern of the mosaic floor is recreated partially. It is set to a pattern where it looks like the space is slowing engulfing everything that tries to enter, reinforcing the spookiness of the space.
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A perspective of the box’s bottom, it’s decorated with an automatic light circuit used in 2/F.
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