EIDOPHUSIKON

Into the Sublime: the Eidophusikon Reimagined is my reconstruction and reimagining of the iconic Eidophusikon, a milestone in theatre history. It was created by the 18th-century French painter Philip James de Loutherbourg RA, who served as a stage designer for David Garrick at Drury Lane, creating sublime stage effects that astounded audiences. The original Eidophusikon, widely regarded as a crucial forerunner to cinema, was a small-scale stage set that combined dramatic paintings, lights, gauze, coloured glass, and smoke to create scenic effects.

Into the Sublime follows de Loutherbourg’s plan of a five-scene performance while incorporating current contemporary art to explore de Loutherbourg’s alchemical concepts and Swedenborg’s ideas about art and science, material work and the afterlife, and his vision of the Divine.

To follow the Alchemy Theatre project and the development of the Eidophusikon see www.artandmagick.blog http://www.artandmagick.blog

Collaborating Artists:

Liane Lang; Shannon Rakochy, Marwan ElGamal; Natasha Redina; Nazir Tanbouii; Anna Chiarini.

Performing the Eidophusikon: Jagoda N. Winter and Natasha Redina. Music by Takatsuna Mukai. Lights by diz_qo

How it Works:

Each image is divided into 6 separations then collaged as scenography

What’s next?

I will continue working on the Eidophusikon to experiment with different materials and lighting setups. From the residency, I learned how to construct and operate the Eidophusikon, but there is much more to do to develop it as a theatre-visual art hybrid that reactivates an archaic art form and excites contemporary audiences.

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Eidophusikon built in collaboration with Mark Fairhurst Bosco Designs and Robert Poulter New Model Theatre