performance,game,outdoors
RAINMAKING
A giant Cat's Cradle game taken to the streets as a public campaign for rain.
Collaborators (2022 in London):
Siyang Chen
Manyang Hu
Siyuan Wu
et.al
RAINMAKING
A giant Cat's Cradle game taken to the streets as a public campaign for rain.
Collaborators (2022 in London):
Siyang Chen
Manyang Hu
Siyuan Wu
et.al
2019-2022
Rainmaking is an outdoor physical game exploring "campaign" as a public political act by means of playfulness. We invite the audience to collaborate on the cat's cradle game with their bodies and a 25-meter-long red rope as a campaign for rain. It is designed to generate an in-between and playful arena where people are free to role-play, question and reflect on their actions during and after an act of public activism.
Inspired by a global increase in the past five years of people taking it to the streets, this work looks to translate protest language into playful language. By abstracting the concepts down to simple rules and playful goals, Rainmaking highlights the bare action of collaborative participation. Players have high agency in this play experience, where they also carry the obligation to self-observe and reflect on their given freedom. What is my role in this temporary collective? What motivates me and keeps me in the game? Do I believe our effort will truly see result? And if it does rain, what will I/we carry on doing then?
Exhibition:
2019.10 Wuzhen Theatre Festival Fringe, China
2022.4 Now Play This Festival, Somerset House, UK
2022.5 Brighton Fringe, UK
2022.7 Ensemble Festival, UK
Inspired by a global increase in the past five years of people taking it to the streets, this work looks to translate protest language into playful language. By abstracting the concepts down to simple rules and playful goals, Rainmaking highlights the bare action of collaborative participation. Players have high agency in this play experience, where they also carry the obligation to self-observe and reflect on their given freedom. What is my role in this temporary collective? What motivates me and keeps me in the game? Do I believe our effort will truly see result? And if it does rain, what will I/we carry on doing then?
Exhibition:
2019.10 Wuzhen Theatre Festival Fringe, China
2022.4 Now Play This Festival, Somerset House, UK
2022.5 Brighton Fringe, UK
2022.7 Ensemble Festival, UK