McFarlane and Barker

Way back in 2001 artist, sculptor, and master action figure crafter, Toddd McFarlane teamed with Clive Barker to create a line of horrifying figures known as "Tortured Souls".

Link to official gallery and site here.

These images play with the ideas of danger, fear, power, duality, and a sensation of "Should this exist? Should I be here?" that we touched on in the production meeting.

Moving Pictures

For some fantastically offbeat reason, music videos to Tool are laden with images and ideas we've discussed as important, thematically and aesthetically, to the production. Because of this: imbedded video.

Tool: "Sober"

Ideas of escape into a dangerous realm and self discovery.

Tool: "Jambi"

Twinship, and dual entities

Tool: "Parabola"

Awakening, self discovery amidst completely alien environment

Links to Barker Galleries

With Clive Barker being so readily accepted into our cannon of research, a few wonderful galleries have popped up showcasing massive amounts of his original artwork.

The official Clive Barker website:

Revelations

Artwork gallery from official site:

GALLERY

Specific link for view of fairy world here.

Gallery posting some select works of interest, formerly the official site, now focused on archiving interviews:

Gallery 2

Gothic Images

In keeping with the idea of melding Gothic architecture with the Barker research, here are a few I've been looking at for their indicative Gothic nature and somewhat sharp, grotesque beauty.

Ideas tossed around in the production meeting also pointed to treating the fairies as sculpture. Here are some ideas of the treatment of the humyn figure within architecture and sculpture from French high Gothic and [armor] Germanic influences.

The link to the site for the armor can be found here.
-Great link to further research

Barker, Barker, Barker

These images went over very well in the Production meeting, especially the third. Cindy saw this fusion of the two bodies as an idea for the relationship between Puck and Oberon. The second image is one that beget the idea of a pregnant puck, while the first is from a similar series by Clive Barker, and again shows the potential costume applications of twinship, bonded beings, and absurdity.

People as Living Grotesque Sculpture

This first video has an idea of some treatments for humyns as sculpture, particularly a sense of stone, pain, and horror.

Tool: "Stinkfist"


Below is a treatment of the body as an unreal entity emerging from the world it exists in, changes, and in the end fuses into another.



Tool: "Schism"

Production Meeting #1: Notes and Ideas

The following is a flow of the ideas tossed about in the 1st production meeting of the full team, mainly laying out the wishes and proto-ideas of director Cindy Phaneuf.

-Imagination as challenge to team: begin in world of structure, only way to escape is to leave world into a more dangerous one
-leads to Magical Forest of MSND
magical grotesque?: dangerous, but area for self discovery in a world "out of control"
*self aware as meta-theatre?
-things not going well in Fairy realm
-nature completely absurd
-tension between opposites; transformation between such
-heightened impracticality
-multidiminsional space: drop from ceiling
+spirit of anarchy

3rd Realm of Play: Mechanicals
-only group getting along
-dignity of working class
-charmed, not dumbed down
-other worlds (fairy, lovers, humyns) must learn from them

MOON as a major image throughout play
World between sleep and wake
hot ice, strange snow [ashes?]
seasons are very wrong

Grotesque: don't know whats coming or where its been
weird shapes: organic, but not natural
Fairies as mime statues in humyn world, then escape to alternate
Havn't been here, shouldn't/cant be here: keep surprising the audience

REFLECTIVE SURFACES: Cirque de Soleil, Growtowsky(?)

Water at edge of greek (doric order) structure, being consumed by nature

*crumbling architecture returned to earth
*Indian temples
*Mayan pyramids unearthed

ARTAUD: THEATRE AND ITS DOUBLE
"nerves & heart"
+major influence of twinship+

Faires: 2bodies bonded into 1
Fire, webby, airy richness
simple, resonant shadow, and its physical double {artaud}

Quiet Self Discovery

Grotesque: inside and outside VERY different
_Clean, big architecture
=man made nature

Quiet, moving to whirling dervish
-false silhouettes, changing of humyn form
DISTORTION OF THE BODY
pettiness of fairy royalty

TRANSPARENCY THROUGH HISTERIA
finding calm through understanding at max chaos

Costumes:
Underground world of current society: bizarre beauty of alternate lifestyles
-RD, vampire society
-fetishwear
-dangerous outward; loved sense of safety and belonging to those within lifestyle

#PREGNANT PUCK?#

rEALM of not knowing, but longing for knowledge of it
!!!Barker: Hellraiser (Cenobyte society)

Movie: "What Dreams May Come"

need to go to the forest
more opposition
what am i supposed to be? happy? scared?
=constantly reevaluate=
how you see yourself and others in what you want to be become
Pushed to ugly & desperation
too dark = not being able to leave

Grotesque: coming through walls
-crawling and climbing, sculpting the space with actor's body
SIMPLE POWER
Puck: Subject to burst of "enthusiasm"
"If Puck found and umbrella, what would it be?"

*Period of real world?
*Mechanicals: what would they do, as common people, if put into theatre position

Clever
over
Elaborate

a person must be viewed by others in terms of
"Who are you, and how did you get the way you are?"
-supreme complexity beneath exterior-

Initial Ideas

The first ideas we've been running with have come from Gothic architecture, gargoyles, and French grotesque. Further revelations came when we began fusing this with the influence of the likes of Nine Inch Nails, fetishwear, industrial/underground lifestyles, Tool...and Clive Barker.

The paintings and concept work of Barker has been a significant influence in finding the feel for initial design work, as well as an artistic style the team can embrace for further research.

More inquiry is needed in the realm of Eastern influence, specifically in Hindu mythology, Kali Demon architectural motifs, and Indian architecture influences as fused with the European Gothic Structures.

Statement of Purpose and Disclaimer

This blog exists to ease the transition of information between myself, the Assistant Costume Designer, and the head Costume Designer, Robbie Jones. All members of the production team will have access to the read-only version of the site, director included, but only the Costume crew will be given access to posting and editing the content of this site.

Images and information posted here may or may not be final renditions of ideas used in the production, representative of any production material, or direction taken by the design team. All ideas are subject to change, alteration, or omission given direction of the production.



*Unless noted, images and video are copyright of their respective owners, and are presented here on a discussion basis only, not as original work to be sold or distributed.

Designs for UNO's production of William Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream are property of their respective designer, as well as the production and may be used only with written permission and consent of all parties.