DALI LLAMA (Participatory Installation Proposal)

Description

SUMMARY: Salvador Dali, the Dalai Lama, and a live llama animal are brought together here, most likely for the first and last time. In a space half-lit by black lights, there are three large cages, in one of which is a live llama, and in the other, a live, fully dressed woman. The third cage is for the willing visitors. The visitors can also talk to the woman, as well as watch a custom videotape of a distorted reality on a large LCD projector screen on one of the walls, or read quotations from the Dalai Lama on the LED running text display on the opposite wall. BACKGROUND & CONCEPT That we live in cages of one sort or another is an old worn-out cliché. A bit less known is the extent to which this is true. The surrealists of old wished to rid us from some of our cages, as exemplified by Salvador Dali’s melted clock of the time cage. They’ve succeeded about as much as does an artist who paints a wound succeed in healing it. Then, of course, there are the great religious and spiritual teachings that purport to likewise help us see our incarcerations. Are the Dalai Lama’s insights the dynamite needed to blow up our mental cages? We’ll see whether his wisdom will free our three caged, live creatures in this installation: a llama, a woman, and a visitor who gets into a cage voluntarily. INSTALLATION DESCRIPTION A large rectangular space is half-lit by black lights and a flickering video. In it there are two large wooden cages, in one of which is a live llama, and in the other, a live, fully dressed woman. The third cage is for the willing visitors. The visitors can also talk to the woman, as well as watch a custom video of a distorted reality on a large LCD projector screen on one of the walls, and read quotations from the Dalai Lama on the LED running text display on the opposite wall.