100 Days was a series of events, exhibitions and workshops that marked the turn of the millenium. At the heart of the work was the installation, Sand. This was the first large scale installation in the new look Cruck Barn.
Below are 100 Days programme notes from 1999
Images by Hannah Fox
A Rite of Passage Across the Millenium
7th November 1999 - 14th February 2000
What is the Millennium about? A rough mark on a religious calendar? A celebration of consumer culture? The biggest, brashest bash of all time?
100 Days A public Rite of Passage to dump debris and build new jetties for voyages and arrivals
As a refreshing alternative to legless wipe out on New Year's Eve, WSI propose an active contemplation to mark the transition across centuries. 100 Days is a total poetic work, with markers along the way. There will be stories, songs, sand paintings, tableaux, gardens, prayer flags, ice sculptures, a grotto and a stone beach. Inspirational speakers, poets, artists and songsters will animate 100 Days - re-awakening the imagination, analysing violence; pondering ecology and dreamtime in local ponds - powerful medicine to undercut consumerism. Above all there will be singing, and SAND between our toes.
You are invited to follow our Rite of Passage - Marking the Shift of the Millenium
Highlights of 100 Days
Taking Stock and Spring in the Air are week-long courses in contemporaryceremony, rites of passage and new celebrations. They stand as an introduction to and a conclusion of 100 Days.
Winter Beach Cafe is a monthly soiree - a special gathering with food, music, conversation, ceremonies, and poetry to mark shifting perspectives of 100 Days.
At the heart of 100 Days is SAND, an environment of enchantment created in the Lanternhouse Cruck Barn. It's in two parts, and contains special openings, closings, vigils, performances, ceremonies and wild walks.
The Burma Play will remind us of disenchantment, and the new Breakwater Choir will sing through the Millennium.
Join us!
50 Days
7.30 pm Wed 17 Nov 1999 for 6 weeks
The Breakwater Choir rehearsals - £2 a week8-13 Nov 1999
Taking Stock The Arts of Ceremony
This Autumn School covers 'hands-on' creation of new ceremonies, voice and improvised singing (with jazz and blues ace Carol Grimes), shadow theatre and storytelling, Alexander technique and handmade digital books. 5 simultaneous strands - pick and mix your own menu £80 (£40 / £20)
Taking Stock Special
Public performance and showing of work by tutors and participants of Taking Stock 7.30 pm Sat 13 Nov £4 (£2 / £1)7.30 for 8 pm: 20 Nov, 11 Dec, 15 Jan, 14 Feb
Winter Beach Cafe
The contemporary equivalent of a soiree - poems, songs, deep conversations, presentations, inspirational table settings, and digital projections accompanied by good food and wine. Special guests will introduce themes: untying knots, identifying bad seeds, dumping debris, violence within, new vistas, ecology and shopping.
Places limited, booking essential £12.5020 Nov It's Over - Let It Go!
11 Dec Generations
15 Jan Boundaries + Expeditions
14 Feb An Evening of Romantic Commitment
LETTING GO
New Moon to Full Moon ( Winter Solstice) 7 to 22 Dec 1999
ADMISSION BY DONATION See Diary for times of events
In the Cruck Barn you'll discover an enchanted beach garden where elemental images and evocative sounds collide. Tiny cities on satellite pulleys struggle through space. Small shacks at the end of jetties signal with delicate prayer flags. Fragments of C20th nightmares emerge and old tales are re-twisted. Puppet tableaux blaze in momentary light. Monstrous birds and shadows hover while strange nursery rhymes puncture the disquiet with a little hope.
Lighting of Lamps Every day at dusk lamps will illuminate an inner landscape where the imagination will be re-awakened.
Tours with the Keeper On occasions the keeper will reveal old paths and unearth forgotten worlds.
Tours with the Keeper for groups, organisations and school parties by arrangement - ring for details.
INTERLUDE
The actual shift of the millennium is, we feel, a private time. In the two week space between LETTING GO and NEW JOURNEYS Lanternhouse will close; and WSI artists will transform SAND to mark our own Right of Passage across the Millennium.
New Journeys
6 to 21 Jan 2000 New Moon to Full Moon
ADMISSION BY DONATION See Diary for times of events
In the Cruck Barn New Year sees a transformation. After sweeping away the irrelevant and the nostalgic, there will be a focus on stillness. The space will be more empty. Within an edifice of sand, there will be hints of new ice ages and global upheaval. Cities and old concepts will be held in ice, while a new wind rattles through.
Wild Walks Departing from SAND, we will follow a route on foot (3 or 4 miles) into the landscape of the beautiful Furness Peninsula. The journey touches ancient sites and includes small ceremonies and quiet enhancements along the way. Later, there will be a 'hands-on' opportunity to create and make a personal response to the walk. Slmple materials and support will be available.
Wild Walks for groups, organisations and school parties by arrangement - ring for details.
50 DAYS
7.30 pm Sat 8 Jan - to be confirmed
Northern International Theatre Projects
The Burma Play A Comedy of Terror
In 1996 two celebrated Burmese comedians were imprisoned for telling jokes. This script-in-hand performance reminds us of what the millennium will not resolve. "... a vital glimpse of the suffering and courage of the Burmese people. I warmly recommend it" John Pilger £4 (£2 / £1)7.30 pm Weds 17 Nov - 6 wks
Digital Documentary
Digital Video Workshops £3031 Jan - 5 Feb 2000
Spring in the Air The Arts of Celebration
This Winter School leads out of 100 Days with the theme of new expeditions, and includes 'hands-on' song writing, street band workshops, performance skills, and visual theatre. It's an overture to The Sky's The Limit, our next major project in May. £80 (£40 / £20 )
