Ellipsis

ELLIPSIS

Collaboration with Composer Edmund Campion

Acquario Romano, Rome, Italy

Commissioned by:
Commune di Roma, American Academy in Rome

Dimensions:
H 70’ x W 45’ x D 135’ (21.3 x 13.7 x 41.1m)

Elements:
4,000 Water-Filled Glasses, Hemispherical Vessels, Bay Laurel Trees, Orbiting Solar Light, Mirrors, Aluminum Sphere, a Mountain of Talc, Stones, Photographic Flashes, Incandescent and Natural Light, Grand Piano, 23 Member Chorus

Site Description:
The Acquario Romano: an elliptical building with a main floor and two levels of balconies open in the center like a drum. Built in the 1880’s as both a grand ballroom and aquarium, it was used for only six years and left vacant for nearly a century prior to its restoration in 1994.

Ellipsis was a public event – an installation with visual elements and music, the first in a series of solstice events at the Acquario Romano dedicated to the City of Rome. The audience was invited to experience the continuous work at any time between sunset and midnight.

A large grand piano, concealed within an intimate forest of laurel trees, stood at the center of the large elliptical space. A constellation of 4,000 water-filled glasses surrounded the piano, covering the ground floor like the reflection of stars in a lake. Twenty-three singers stood evenly spaced around the first balcony, lit in silhouette by a light slowly orbiting behind them. Each held a small strobe light, which they triggered to spark at random intervals throughout the evening’s event.

Composer Edmund Campion began playing the world premiere of a new solo piano work written for the occasion at exactly the moment of sunset in Rome (21:36.) The music was structured into several highly virtuosic toccatas punctuated by fantasy interludes that incorporated the voices of the New Chamber Singers, directed by Keith Griggs.

Intermittent visual elements punctuated and augmented the evolving sequences, animating the space. Black stones fell into a brightly lit mound of white powder at even intervals, causing small explosions of dust in the light. A globe, suggested by ribs of steel, revolved in the air above the grand piano. The audience itself was in constant motion, strolling in one direction and observing the work from around the elliptical balcony above and the floor beneath.

Ellipsis was a meditation on the inevitable evolution of time. The building, an architectural folly, was the inspiration for the work.