Hello and thank you for the opportunity,
My proposal can take 2 different forms depending on the possibility of execution and with the material costs at my disposal. Both executions are an installation that will be an interactive space. Inspired by Yoyoi Kusama's interactive spaces, I would like to create a bedroom that can be decorated by the visitor. The decoration is dependent on what I can create before Labor Day but I imagine it to be toys, papier mache trinkets, soft sculpture, or something completely different. The main goal is to create an environment of safety, and for the participant to feel invested in the space. The stand-alone structure will be a drywall "bedroom" that is 5ft wide by 7ft depth by 10 ft high. At this time, I imagine the walls to be covered in velcro and for participants to be invited to decorate the room.
Unbeknownst to them or maybe known to them, there is a door on the farthest wall (7ft away) that is either open or closed, I am not sure. Lights in the room will be on a timer and after a certain amount of time the lights will turn off and a black light will turn on. This means the room would have to be very dark; so the environment will have to be separated physically either by a layer of blackout curtains around the structure on the outside or the walls must go all the way to the ceiling. Either way, any outside light from the full exhibit would contaminate the drama of the sudden darkness and black light switch, and the effect will be lost. I will hopefully have most of the fabrics and paints in the room be non-reactive to black light in order to draw attention to the door on the far wall which will show a face that wasn't obvious before, or is shown when the door opens, which may or may not require a performer. It is neither a scary face or a friendly face, it's up to interpretation. It will be a papier mache pierrot mask that i will make, which illuminates in the black light.
The idea for this installation is to start a conversation with fear. I think many of us deal with the early onset of authoritarianism from our parents and are introduced to the idea that fear is always there, spontaneous and unpredictable. We are forced to reckon with its existence and act in spite of it or we find other ways to cope. In this installation, fear is an unpredictable appearance in a trusted place and how that affects us in adulthood. I want people to reflect on how they act in spite of fear and how they react knowing that fear was always there just separated by a door or by sight.
My initial concept, and the 2nd iteration, which I think was most effective but I don't think is possible, I want to propose to you anyway just so at the very least you better understand the concept. In this installation, the concept is mostly the same: the room is the same but maybe sparser, maybe just white, and to have no lights interacting with the participant. Instead the participant interacts with fear not by spontaneity and sight, but with motion and anticipation. In a perfect would, there would a rotating platform that the participant stands on facing the closed door on the far wall, 7 feet away. With each rotation the door on the far wall opens, another rotation a person appears, another rotation the person gets closer....and closer and closer with each rotation, so that every action is happening when the participant's back is turned to the action as it is happening. However I don't know how to engineer a rotating platform which will support a human's weight and I don't have an idea for how to rotate a platform that will support human weight without influencing or impacting the exhibition. It is very important that the participant feel alone in the installation.
I am providing my preliminary sketch and notes so that you better understand the idea. I wanted to also provide a mood board for where my mind is at thematically, architecturally, etc. I do think it would overlap nicely with the mood board that you provided. It still deals with themes of adolescence, as well as insight into the living conditions of a troubled youth, which may create a "loser" and would prevent such a person from fitting in with the norm.
