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Story of Simon Birch

People often ask about my inspirations and how I developed @the14thfactory. This is my story...

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The content/concept. I will try to keep it brief.

Each part of the project represents an element of the hero's journey. Same narrative structure as Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, Homer's Odyssey, Journey to the West.

The long dark tunnel at the entrance is the rabbit hole leading into the journey (another, a vortex, at the end of the show takes you home). After this entrance a procession through darkness, light, intimidation, comfort, expansion, contraction, a talisman (pitchforks) a conflict, a resolution (Ferrari crash), reward (crowns on fragile display stands), and transformation.

Every element connects to every other installation. The strong man, the hero, floating against gravity, car revolving to destruction, the viewer rising past skyscrapers, the garden grows and dies (surface undulation mirrors a location on the moon), the white room takes us from one realm to the new. The big black installation, frozen explosion, a meteor strike, and later in the show 14 actual salvaged meteors.

300 men fight in a Beijing factory, 300 pitchforks suspended, 300 pieces of the crashed car. Pale blue (and 13 more colours) in the paintings, the colour of the car Jackson Pollock died in, drunk car crash, same colour on many other objects, 14 flags at the entry, 14 porcelain flags on the table, and on and on.

The conceptual map is a whole book in itself and the narrative is mirrored in the process of realising the show.

Off on an adventure, commitment, trials and tribulations, heroes (the collaborating artists) and villains (won't name names), and the delivery of the project the boon, the gift to visitors.