Illusion 1 & 2

Performance Installation with Takami & Mobu Dance Group

Glass, mirrors, light
Dimensions vary

Illusion 1 & 2 are stage sets created for live dance performances with the Takami & Mobu Dance Group. The works were designed and constructed specifically for Project Artaud Theater in 2007 and later adapted for SOMA Arts Theater in 2008.

The stage sets consist of custom-built platforms integrated with the existing theater stage, from which fields of vertical glass rods emerge. These glass elements—ranging from ½ to ¾ inch in diameter and 3 to 5 feet in height—are arranged at nearly the dancers’ height, forming an immersive, forest-like environment through which the performers move.

Light is directed upward from beneath the stage into the clean-cut ends of the glass rods, allowing illumination to travel through the material and disperse at the crackled, icy-textured tips. This lighting approach draws on fiber-optic principles, emphasizing one of glass’s defining characteristics: its ability to transmit, bend, and transform light.

During the performances, the dancers physically and spatially engaged with the glowing glass field, creating shifting visual illusions as movement, reflection, and light interacted in real time.

Later, this approach evolved into a permanent public art installation. In 2009, the artist applied this concept to Spirit of Camelback at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona. Long glass stems were installed horizontally, passing through the 12-inch-thick curved wall at the second-floor level along the building’s entrance.

Related project: Spirit of Camelback (2009)