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Created at the Banff Centre for the Arts
Series of 24 drawings. India ink on glass, 3 1/4" x 4", 2007
The drawings are to be used in a magic lantern performance or an installation. The performance will include a live narrator and 4-piece band.
The Diamond Maker; or, the Alchemist’s Daughter is an installation and performance inspired by a Victorian “picture-play” or “magic lantern show” of the same name. The original Victorian script and story-line has been lost; however, I came across the title when researching the famous magic lantern showman and illusionist “Professor” John Henry Pepper. In 1865, Prof. Pepper had provided “scientific arrangements” and designed illusions for the original Diamond Maker.
I turned to the title as an inspirational starting point for developing a project based on Victorian magic lantern shows. Having little clue to the actual story, I rewrote The Diamond Maker; or, the Alchemist’s Daughter by placing Prof. Pepper himself inside the story as the main character and re-imagined how he, as a scientist, might come into contact and conflict with the characters called “the Diamond Maker” and “the Alchemist’s Daughter.” What might occur when a man devoted to rationality is confronted with events he cannot explain? What factors might pursue him to suspend skepticism and believe simply in magic?
