A FOURTH WALL
2019
Speculative
Chicago
A Fourth Wall proposal seeks to challenge the conventional relationship between audience and performer, stage and curtain through the use of moire as an architectural device. The fourth wall is a performance construct to describe the invisible line or surface that exists between the viewer and the artist. This is typically recognized as a directional relationship where the viewer can see the artist, but the artist cannot see the viewer. The theater in the round is a performance format that removed the fourth wall by enabling the viewer and performer to occupy the same three-dimensional space. The performer is forced, at times, to turn their back to the audience and engage with them spatially in a number of ways. Our proposal seeks to reinterpret this performance construct through an architectural intervention that forces both artist and viewer to rethink their relationship to each other, the performance and their surroundings. Through this intervention, the entire Ragdale Ring becomes the stage and the roles of performer and audience become interchangeable
Ragdale Ring Competition Finalist
Project Team: Abigail Coover Hume, Joanna Ptak, Sophi Lilles, Talya Polat
