GongLab Holiday Celebration
Sunday, December 6, 6:30pm to 9:00pm: Skylight Event Space, Heartwood Center
Featuring: The Gong Bath Shadow Tale “Sleeping in the Forest,” Hot Tea & Pastries, and a very Special Preview Performance of a New Collaborative Work!
With Musical Guests: Suwan Choi, Byoung Kim, Rick Kubes and Khari Lemuel.
“Sleeping in The Forest”
“Bedtime stories were not meant to put the children to sleep, but rather to awaken the adults.”
“Sleeping in the Forest” is a transformation tale and guided visualization told through shadow puppetry. The story, inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem “Sleeping in the Forest” initiates a sonic, visual, and visceral journey into a liminal realm to connect with Nature and invoke the support of the Unconscious.
There is a long association between the forest and the unconscious mind which is often seen as feminine. Vegetation is in control here unregulated; the domain of the Great Mother, the Feminine Principle. As a marked boundary, forests symbolize the frontier, the unknown, thresholds – the home of fairy tales and legends. Journeys into them are seen as initiations, tests & challenges; to return is to be reborn.
Bring your mat, blanket and pillow and drift off immersed in this spell-inducing story of renewal and rebirth. The tale unfolds in flickering candlelight as a spiraling cocoon of luminous healing sound produced by ceremonial gongs, bowls, bells, drums and otherworldly vocals carries you deep into the Archetypal Forest; a place of investigation, opportunity, and energetic attunement.
Live Music: Oliver Seay, Shu Shubat, Shadow Show Design & Construction: Mike Oleon, Carl Brahms Videograpahy: Carl Brahms
After Party with Hot Tea & Pastries following the Shadow Tale.
Join us for a bedtime story nightcap from the comfort of your mat while we take a moment to reset. The evening will conclude with a preview performance of “Lullaby” a collaborative new work and then we’ll send you off, ringing out into the starry night.
About “Lullaby” GongLab in collaboration with Suwan Choi.
We’re thrilled to launch the fledgling performance of a new work being developed in conjunction with Global Pungmul Institute’s esteemed artist in residence, Korean percussionist Suwan Choi.
Samulnori is a genre of traditiona percussion derived from Pungmul, a folk genre with living roots in shamanic ritual and Korean Buddhist practices. The form utilizes four main percussion instruments. The 2 gongs signify the heavens, while the 2 drums signify earth. Each instrument also corresponds to a particular element of nature; wind, rain, clouds, thunder and lightning.
The playing of these instruments expresses the harmonious, dynamic interplay between human beings and the natural world. For many listeners the imagery and sound of the gongs and drums creates a rich amalgam of emotions that reverberate with a ceremonial reverence and a roiling, primordial energy that spirals you into its grip. We know you will be as enchanted by it’s irresistible pull as we are.
Suwan Choi: Kkwaenggwari, Byoung Kim: Janggo, Rick Kubes: Jing, Oliver Seay: Buk, Khari Lemuel:Cello w/ Shu Shubat: Vocals.