An Infinite Line: Brighton
2008
The first in a series of projects that are created in response to the quality of natural light in different places
An Infinite Line Brighton installation 2008
An Infinite Line: Brighton was commissioned by the 2008 Brighton Festival, as an exploration of and response to the quality of natural light in Brighton. The project was in three parts: a site-specific performance piece, an installation of 8mm cine films, and a book.
THE PERFORMANCE
The performance of An Infinite Line: Brighton took place in a former print works in the centre of the city, in an underground space devoid of natural light. Rather than trying to recreate the light (why do this when the light itself is already so extraordinary?) the performance presented a series of images, soundscape, texts, actions and lighting events which combined to form a new visual landscape, one which evoked the sensual and subjective experience of the natural light, but didn’t describe it.
THE INSTALLATION
The installation for An Infinite Line: Brighton took place in the same space as the performance, during the day. It consisted of thirty 8mm cine projectors, projecting short films depicting the light falling on the natural and urban landscapes of Brighton. Ranging from the abstract (light as a wash of colour on the churning surface of the sea) to the literal (the mirror ball turning slowly on top of the pier) the films, projected onto blocks of chalk – like the chalk of the local cliffs – created a flickering and constantly changing environment of colour, light and sound.
THE BOOK
Created in collaboration with book designers Valle Walkley, the book version of An Infinite Line: Brighton is a collection of writings which describe in words the mercurial and ephemeral light as it changes across a day, across seasons, and across a year.
An Infinite Line Brighton live performance 2008
Meet the Team
Associate Direction: Sam Butler
Assistant Stage Management: Billy Hiscoke
Book Design: Valle Walkley
Cine film projection, live sound: Mark Webber
Design & direction: David Harradine
Design & production management: Ali Beale
Dramaturgy: Synne Behrndt
Horse Wrangling: Kevin Smith & Cindy Morris
Lighting: Jo Manser
Performers: David Leahy, Jamie Bradley, Jamie McCarthy, Laura Cubitt, Phoenix (the horse)
Stage Management: Beth Hoare-Barnes
An ambitious, impressionistic tribute to Brighton’s light and weather. A sensory, dreamlike show with some ingenious painterly coups de theatre.
Financial Times
Strongly evocative….the visual installations work beautifully and it’s hard not to be seduced by Harradine and his company’s vision.
The Independent
Like light, An Infinite Line is ever changing. Powerful and magnificent.
The Guardian
The performance has moments of surreal beauty and hallucinatory quality, much like the light itself.
The Argus
Commissioned By
Brighton Festival
Supported By
Arts Council England