In Search of a Myopic’s Leitmotif; Mal’Aria, (model of Chinchona Bark with Wagner’s Festspielhaus)
Europly, foam, audio, and Dermestid beetles
Collaboration with Ryan Taber, exhibited at Machine Project, Los Angeles, 2005
"Los Angeles artists Ryan Taber and Cheyenne Weaver recall Romanticism’s love affair with operatic drama. In the sculptural installation on view here—which incorporates a model of Chinchona (quinine) bark with Richard Wagner’s Bayreuth Festpielhaus, Dermestid beetles, and leitmotifs from Wagner’s Waking of Brunnhilde, in his Ring cycle—they shrink the opera stage down to the scale of tabletop dollhouses and model-railroad dioramas. Open-ended and free form, the work’s various components leap from inkling to idea to insight, as the big picture gradually slips into focus. Evading the linear story told from beginning to end, their art presents multilayered parts that echo against each other and can be viewed from any direction and in any order."
- David Pagel, Los Angeles Times, 2005
Also exhibited as part of the show Damaged Romanticism, curated by David Pagel
