Harewood House 2024
Mischief at the Mansion
(Working Title)
Summary:
"Mischief at the Mansion" will bring the stately rooms of Harewood House come alive again with projection mapping and narratives that blend history, art and technology. Fresh surprises mixed with variations on some old visitor favourites will ensure another potteresque adventure for both returning visitors and newcomers alike.
Themes:
The stories told by Harewood's marble busts, plates, Christmas baubles, portraits and cakes are rooted in historical facts and narrated in the form of gossip, singing and reminiscing dialogues; sometimes fun, sometimes ridiculous but sometimes also sentimental.
The talking and signing objects are interspersed with scintillating audiovisual experiences when ceiling plasterwork and dress embroidery begin to shine with choreographies of sparkling patterns.
Weaving through all of these elements will be a fun leitmotif - some hanging angel ornaments have escaped the Christmas trees and flown out across the rooms to create mischief everywhere.
1. Music Room:
As visitors enter the beautifully decorated, christmassy music room they are 'greeted' with rather uncharacteristic loud, un-melodic piano noises. Upon closer inspection of the noises' source it looks as if some little winged creatures are bouncing up and down inside the open piano using its strings as a trampoline. The little guys are Christmas angels who have escaped the life of being a Christmas tree ornament and are turning out to be up to no good...
3. Gallery
There’s some lovely singing ("Rocking' Around the Christmas Tree") and some not so lovely bickering coming from the large Christmas tree. Looks like a few of the large, sparkly baubles hanging in there are practicing their Christmas carols and wondering why the little angels have left them hanging...
2. Dining Room:
In the dining room visitors find a more civilised mood on a lavishly decorated dining table where two or more plates are engaged in an intimate conversation. Maybe they're nervously awaiting their dinner guests, maybe they're sentimentally thinking about their friends shut away in the cupboards or maybe they're also bathing in the glow of the projections that animate other parts of the table. One thing is clear though, they are clearly annoyed by those little angels who are lying in the silky napkins and strumming the harps they've stolen from the Christmas trees...
4. Cinnamon Drawing Room
It looks like the mischievous angel gang is playing with the paintings on the wall. Like children they scribble on the wallpaper, draw moustaches onto the portraits, tickle their subject's ears, sprinkle fairy dust to elicit a sneeze and generally engage in naughty 'angel vandalism'.
5. Yellow Drawing Room
Upon entering the yellow drawing room visitors are invited to take a break and sit on the sofa or lie on the cushions on the floor to take in the beautiful music and the dancing patterns that animate the ceiling's plasterwork. Since it was a lot of people's favourite part the ceiling projection will be back in its original form.