Parlour
A multi-room installation, entered individually.
Sheffield Hallam University, 2007.
When you leave, you encounter others who have travelled through, you share what you can remember of the story told to you by the young woman, however you begin to doubt yourself as your listener disagrees, the story didn't go like that...
ROOM 1
Room 1: Instruction to enter one at a time only when the red light is on.
ROOMS 2 & 3
Room 3: The door closes behind you. A small room with two stools, a woman greets you and asks you to embrace her. If you do, she invites you to sit and tells you a story. Once finished, she opens the next door.
Room 2: An antechamber
ROOM 4
Room 4: As you step through the door you cannot proceed unless you drop to the floor and crawl through the tunnel ahead of you. You pass through twists and turns of walls and ceiling made from the discarded wood of Victorian houses; skirting, panelling and other assorted mouldings and features. you come across a young girl, nine years old who is spreading honey onto bread. She offers you a piece and invites you to pass through the next door.
ROOM 5
Room 5: As you stand to pass through the open door, your way is blocked by dead hanging branches, only passable if you are the same heigh, or shorter than the child of eleven years old, who stands behind a table at the far side of the room. The branches are levelled to precisely her height, so most adults now stoop to move into the room. She gives you a ticket and asks you to wait to be called. Other people might already be in the room, others may enter. The numbers increase. Some are called, some are not. When your number comes up, you are invited to pass through the next door.
ROOM 6
Room 6: An apparently empty room. There is a small sculpture on the floor on the right hand side and a closed door ahead of you. Do you notice the sculpture? Will you linger and think for a while? Will you rush or stroll toward the unguarded door? As you pass through, you discover that you are back on the corridor from whence you began.
