All the World's

...A Stage

and this was mine. my private universe upon which dreams unfolded, chariots took off

and like water moving through a river, it never remained the same.

I designed this stage over 3 months while working on Khoya for the INK conference this year in Jaipur. As their featured artist of the year, the stage, the book and the entire conference became my canvas, a fertile bed upon which my dreams could take root.

Ofcourse, I had never designed a stage before. But we all start somewhere!

and I started here. A lightbulb, a meticulous cutout in paper, and an idea.  

An intricate web of laser cutouts, layers in wood and mdf all hung and studded across the sky with a back projection with constantly changing backdrops. There would not be a moment of static on my stage, the cutouts were silhouetted by two large animations, and over the span of four days, the colours changed, forests were born, clouds gathered and rained upon it, giant butteflies took over the stage and constellations twinkled.

this was the sketch that I'd made of the stage. and saw it come to life. 

and so it was, white cutouts, open to being transformed with light. (and some love).

And it changed, it morphed from the deepest purple skies like you see below, complete with shooting stars and rockets.

to golds and ambers and blues.

here's a close up of the cutouts in silhouette. 

and quite by accident or fate, while watching it I would see beautiful coincidences, as Julie Taymor, director of Frida and Across the Universe (the namesake to this blog) spoke about a setting sun and the Source of all Inspiration, a sun rose over her head. There she was, source of my inspiration talking about her source on my stage. Tears rose and spilled over.

And by my side, helping me along as I designed my first set were Raghava who brought me in and took me through :) Hilary of bubbles and great bouncy ideas, Paddy of crafty solutions to anything and Anil who laboriously got these produced and dusted. Avijit and my mother and more for moral support and Team Oktopus for endless tracing.

 More from the Stage and INK coming soon. :)

Love,

Shilo