Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991 - 37

991 PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL

OF GARBAGE & GOLD:
I~L~D~~!RBRITAIN AT PQ'91
wolf wirh his ears
flarrened ro his head
and a ripped phorograph in his jaws
sropped me dead in
my rracks as I enrered
Grear Brirain's exhibir ar the 1991 Prague
Quadrennial. I had grown accusromed ro
rhe welcoming exhibirs from orher
narions, exhibirions rhar were formal and
eleganr. This was nor. This was srarding
and rough. TransfIXed by this large sruffed
canine, I \vondered whar rhe exhibir was
all abour.
Then my eyes swepr over rhe enrire
display space. The walls were black, splarrered wirh mud rhar reached abour a foor
up from rhe earrh-colored, sand-srrewn
floor. I could feel rhe grir under my feer
and hear ir scrunch as I srepped furrher
inro rhe room. In fronr of me I saw some
unexpecred sighrs: a pillar of crushed
meral pans, a srack of dirry, old, black
rruck rires, some barrered aluminum
garbage cans, a rubble pile of red bricks
and a huge black plasric garbage bag. Each
of rhese unlikely marerials served ro presenr a series of brillianr rhearrical models
and renderings.
I was perplexed by whar seemed more
appropriare for a gallery exhibir of found
objecrs rhan for a presenrarion of rhearrical designs. The manner of presenrarion-rhe "insrallarion," as I came ro
rhink of ir-was clearly making a srrong
sraremenr and I responded enrhusiasricalI)' ro irs power and exciremenr. I rried ro
undersrand whar I was seeing, bur [ came
up wirh roo many possible explanarions
for rhese exrraordinary images. Rarher
rhan go off on some overly inrellecrualized
or rheorerical analysis (which would probably be way off base anyway), I soughr our
Pamela Howard, one of rhe exhibir
designers and I besieged her wirh quesf1ons.
Her answers ser me ar ease. Thearre is

remporary, she explained. Thearre goes
inro rhe dumpsrer when rhe show is over.
The finesr design, like rhe finesr of rhearrical experiences, is ephemeral. This was
rhe rheme of rhe exhibir, a rheme which
provided rhe seven arrisrs represenring
Great Brirain wirh a guide as ro how ro
presenr rheir designs in rheir allorred
space. As I raised an eyebrow in rhe direcrion of what appeared ro me ro be a wolf
devouring a phorograph, Howard cheerily
informed me, "We don'r rake ourselves
seriously. "
To my great relief, none of the parricipating designers inrended ro make a
pompous philosophical rrearise on rhe
narure of ART. Indeed, I wondered fancifully if rhey had been asked for examples
of rheir work ro include in rhe exhibirion,
had replied rhar rhey didn'r have anyrhing
around because ir had all been rhrown
our, rhen rhoughr whar an appropriare
meraphor rhar acr of rrashing rheir work
was, and finally had rhe clever norion ro
presenr rheir work "as rrashed." From this
playful norion rhey derermined ro presenr
rheir brillianr and exciring designs in a
challenging and enrerraining installarion
rhar broughr rhem rhe Goldell Triglie
Award.
The Trigue is awarded for rhe Best
arional Exhibirion and rhe judges consider borh rhe rhearrical designs included
in rhe exhibir and the overall presenration
of rhe insrallation. There are 12 judges
appoinred by rhe organizers of rhe Prague
Quadrennial, in conjuncrion wirh rhe
Czech and Slovak Federal Republic's Minisrer of Culrure. This year's judges were
inrernarional in rheir represenrarion, with
one each from Bohemia and Slovakia and
rhe other ren being non-Czechoslovakian.
This undersranding of rhe judges' crireria
suggesrs why Grear Brirain's exhibir was
vicrorious. In 1987, rhe US won rhe
Golden Trigue for irs exhibir of four
designers' srudios; John Conklin was rhe

designer of rhe exhibir. Grear Britain's
1991 exhibir included rhe finesr examples
of recenr work by some world-class
designers and Howard's installarion was
both arresring and evocarive. While a
thousand of my words will not be equal ro
rhe experience of viewing these designs
and rhis insrallarion, perhaps rhe reader
will grasp somerhing of rhe impacr of rhis
award-winning exhibirion if I describe
each of rhe designer's works in rum.
Oediplis Rex was rhe producrion being
eaten by the "wolf," which Howard
assured me was acrually a large dog. On

rhe floor of rhe exhibirion space was a
series of five separare lighr boxes illuminating phorographs of igel Lowery's
designs for rhe English arional Opera's
January 1991 producrion in London of
Igor Srravinsky's Oedipus Rex. These phoros revealed a ser which was dominared by
tWO huge white screens, converging
upstage in forced perspecrive, against
which shadowed figures were casr. Since
light was a major elemenr in his design,
Lowery chose ro exhibir production phorographs illuminared in light boxes rarher
rhan ro display a model or rendering.
TD&T

1991

FALL

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1991