Darkfield’s Eulogy
Running in parallel with their similarly structured sensory experiences Coma and Séance, Darkfield’s Eulogy conducts its participants, expected guests, to their assigned booths from where they will be conveyed to their prepared suites, a simple questionnaire of moods and attitudes required before the lights dim and the shuddering movement of the elevator begins, always descending.
Wearing headphones, conversations are overheard but remain ambiguous; it should be a simple if somewhat stressful and emotional process, to arrive at a hotel, to prepare to deliver a eulogy for a friend, but something is wrong; a whispered voice in the ear promises they are here to help, each person isolated from all they know as the sinister descent continues, both physically and mentally.
A hotel a place which is understandable, it is somewhere people stay but don’t really belong, where nothing you have is truly yours save what you bring with you, Eulogy rendering the familiar setting unsettling as time counts down until the as-yet unwritten speech must be delivered, lost in the depths of the building, unable to find the gathering, not even knowing who it is who has died.
Presented in total darkness, Eulogy is less of a narrative than an effect, another variation on Darkfield’s modus operandi of challenging theatrical installations, a demonstration of the profound impact of sound overriding what the mind believes to be true, motion and presences felt and heard where there are none, but an interesting experience for those who are not, as the saying goes, “of a nervous disposition.”
Darkfield’s Eulogy runs at Potterrow Plaza until Monday 28th August
