Set Design
Nguyen’s visual practice of complex and layered imagery is most impactfully realized in an ambitious kinetic set design for Timaeus and The Teacher. A pliable ring of fabric— comprised of quilted, woven, and synthetic materials that variously absorb and reflect light—functions as the setting for the opera’s story. Pulled and stretched by a rigging system that borrows from the engineering of flagpoles and ship sails, the ring is brought to life by a team of dancers, who also perform the creatures voyaging alongside The Teacher.
As an analog device that uses only static imagery and light, its structure harkens back to early forms of moving-image storytelling such as the panorama or the zoetrope. These pre-cinematic devices were often used as part of travelogues to tell stories about movement across great distances and far-away places.
Ring Sequence Renderings, design by Travis Fitch.
Free-standing and collapsible, the ring is easily adaptable to a variety of performance venues and a self-contained structure for touring.
Inside and around this ring—which functions like an architectural skin—the story unfolds as much by the performers as by the imagery that reveals itself over time through the manipulation of the fabric.
