the icy beyond
“The Icy Beyond” is a wearable installation that takes it’s inspiration from three vessels: the dome of heaven, the chambers of the heart, and the caverns of the underworld. Layers of bell shaped skirts are shed to reveal the fable of the Icy Beyond, a quest to reach the other side of the dome of heaven.
“The Icy Beyond” was part of a wearable book art fashion show on Thursday Sept 12th, 2013. The event was part of the grand reopening of Central Booking Gallery on the Lower East Side.
THREADS: WEARABLE BOOK ART PERFORMANCE,
CENTRAL BOOKING GALLERY,
21 LUDLOW STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 12TH, 2013
Image Gallery:
THE ICY BEYOND – A Fable
By: Alyson Pou
There is a place called the Icy Beyond… beyond all space and time stretching forever and ever beyond everything we know. A fearful, still and frozen place. Late on a winter’s night when snowy branches crack and groan, some speak in whisper of this desolate place beyond everything we know, beyond imagination.
They say this infinite and icy place surrounds our heavenly dome where sun, moon and stars glide in peaceful orbit across the sky. They say there are windows in the firmament where you can spy the Icy Beyond, and there is a door, a secret passages to the other side.
You can only reach the door in the Dome of Heaven by climbing the Sky Ladder. You must risk everything and travel far to find it for the sky ladder belongs to the two-headed black birds of the underworld called “Janeye”. They pluck feathers from themselves to weave the ladder and lift it up to the heavens on their wings. The ladder must be built anew for each climber. They will screech at you in hunger and demand that you pluck out and give them your heart in trade for your passage.
And you will want to give it because you will be weary of your journey and your heart’s restless yearnings and sorrow. But, know this–the door beyond won’t open for you if you do not possess some part of your heart and so you must bide your time and wait. Tell the Janeye that you must rest for seven days and that you will give them a small portion of your heart to nourish them each day as they weave your ladder. On the last day make them think you have given it all but hide a tiny portion in your pocket. As the birds fly upward with the ladder and you begin to climb, you will feel that tiny portion of your heart begin to swell and grow and get larger and larger so that when you reach the top the door will fly open, but be warned, a mighty freezing wind will blow thru it and you will be tired and fearful and the birds will hungry and see that you have heart to give them but if you resist and enter your heart will continue to grow and grow until it shatter into beautiful infinite shimmering fragments.