RED IN WOODS was designed for a single viewer, taking place in a snow-filled woods at dusk.
RED IN WOODS was an installation with performance designed for a single viewer. It took place in a snow-filled woods at dusk, for six different people, during the winters of 1991-1993. It was created with the assistance of 28 performers over the three winters.
The audience of one met me at a location about half an hour from Boston, knowing only the title of the event. S/he got into my car, and I drove through the countryside to the beginning of the event. When we arrived, the instructions were simple: “This is RED IN WOODS, it involves all your senses and takes place a full 360ยบ, both near and far. You may engage with it in any way you wish. Just follow the red yarn path. You will know when it’s over. And be careful.”
The path followed a winding route through the woods and field and swamp that was about half a mile long. Along the way were over 30 images sited in the landscape associated with the color red. As the audience person followed the path, s/he had to decide whether to engage with the images along the way, and how long to stay with each one. The images and objects were often placed at a distance from the path, and many of them took time to encounter. The audience had no knowledge of what lay ahead, or even the length of the path, and so the tension increased with the approaching darkness.
The images included: small round red wooden boxes placed on stumps and in crooks of trees, each containing something different to eat, such as a chocolate cherry, fresh raspberries, dried cranberries, raw liver and teeth; a bear-like black dog, gnawing meat, under a tree with huge bones suspended from the branches; a very young girl dressed in black, sitting and watching, who ran off when a voice called, “where are you?”; a small round table with a single chair at the bottom of a steep gully, set with a meal of bread and cheese, red peppers, strawberries and a fragrant, steaming pot of hot, spiced tea; a person in a cape, holding a lantern, beckoning, who disappeared when the audience got closer, leaving behind the box of teeth; red tulips blooming in the snow; a small red chair high in a tree; a red four poster bed in the distance across the swamp, with a figure in a white nightgown standing beside it, watching, who vanished as the viewer approached. The event did not end when the person reached the end of the path and drove home. For the next several days, each person discovered red objects outside her or his front door at home. Were they dropped there by chance?
The piece can be considered a deconstruction of Red Riding Hood, with the audience’s role continually shifting between the different perspectives of the child, the wolf, and the grandmother, or, between being the stalker and stalked. The task, and the dilemma, of the event parallels that of the story as well. The instructions are to follow the path and arrive safely at the end. The tension arises in recognizing that the enticements lie off the path, and knowing that the richer experience lies in allowing oneself to be led astray and become engaged. But as darkness descends, the risk of getting lost becomes greater. And the images gradually become darker and more disturbing, so that the sense of foreboding increases as the piece progresses.
Each audience was alone with the work. No one witnessed the event with that person, and no one was watching as s/he was engaged with the piece. The only record of the event are separate interviews with the six people, in which each described her or his experience. The interviews reveal the range of interpretations that an audience can have of essentially the same event. Each person’s understanding of the performance was unique, colored by her or his own concerns, undiluted by anyone else’s perspective.
