Celestial Energy of Abigail DeVille
Multidisciplinary artist Abigail DeVille joins Scene Shift: The Podcast for a conversation about cosmological time, informed intuition, and making space for history to speak. Known for large-scale sculptures and site-specific installations that engage the material and lived memory of communities, Abigail discusses how she thinks about time as a cosmological framework: constellations, recycled energy, and the long ancient trip we're all on. From sourcing 43 burned cabinets off Craigslist for “*Dio Vindice (Orion's Cabinet)”* at the Geffen Contemporary to uncovering her great-grandfather's medical records at the Central State Hospital for the Colored Insane (the institution behind her work “*A Mourning”)* this episode moves between the deeply personal and the historically vast. We also talk about working with 11 installers and knowing when to let go, the performative dimension of visual art spaces, her USC processional and what the students taught her about endurance, her bond with Cauleen Smith (19 years and counting, thanks to Skowhegan), and why her most recent work is the most restrained she's ever been and what that might mean.
Music by Claire McKeown "Sarabande in D minor" https://open.spotify.com/track/33X6NXAFqKXffxbdxCJ80A?si=2163333f328d4722
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Allowing Time for Lighting Designers to Respond with Set and Lighting Designer Jiyoun Chang
Tony Award-nominated lighting designer Jiyoun Chang (Stereophonic, Slave Play, For Colored Girls) joins Scene Shift: The Podcast for a conversation about light, time, and the creative process. Known for transforming stages into emotionally charged visual landscapes, Jiji discusses how she uses light as a temporal instrument, controlling pace, pulse, and the passage of time in productions. From the incandescent glow of a recording studio in Stereophonic to portrait lighting in The Importance of Being Earnest, this episode is a deep dive into the dramaturgical thinking behind one of theatre's most celebrated lighting designers. We also talk about opera, working in Europe, collaborating across language barriers, the parallels between parenthood and tech week, and why Jiji rarely describes her lighting designs in advance, and why that works.
Music by Claire McKeown "Sarabande in D minor" https://open.spotify.com/track/33X6NXAFqKXffxbdxCJ80A?si=2163333f328d4722
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