Mechanical Stages
Mechanical stages function as standalone animatronic sculptures as well as sets for Lanina’s short films.
Each stage is supported by a pair of seductively stockinged legs, and the curtains are held aside to expose the inner world that serves as the torso for these figures. The structures are headless, and their torsos are bursting with the characters, props, and paintings that appear in Lanina’s videos.
Mechanical Stages
2008-2023
Mechanical stages function as standalone sculptures as well as sets for Lanina’s short films.
What we first see are a pair of stockinged legs and a curtain that is held aside as it exposes the inner world of the torso. There is no head. The body is the storyteller.
The inside of the torso is a mise en scéne staging that is bursting with characters, props, figurines or doll like effigies, all lavishly decorated and seductively illuminated. This setting can be kinetically activated and it will spring to life like a well choreographed ballet or boisterous operetta.
But where is the brain? Maybe all of this frantic, yet smoothly performing scenario is an analogy to our cerebral functions with its trillions of synapsis that keep us going and in balance. Our psyche, our feelings and emotions, our desires and our subconscious personae are all there and you may discover some more traits as you contemplate this spectacle.
The stages are activated by a distant sensor. The performance lasts 40 seconds.
Technical development Theodore Johnson
Photography Fred Hatt
The stages were presented in Silos as a part of Fragmented Figure, Houston Sculpture Month
Link to video documentation
>>> All stages together
>>> Celebration
>>> Once Upon a Time
>>> Dancers