BELL 8 is a meditative installation created in 2016 by Deirdre Towers named after the navigational buoy in Long Island Sound, near the mouth of the Connecticut River. Designed to inspire the sense of expansion and bliss one can have afloat, this immersive experience helps you to release your impulse for control, and embrace change. The process involved recognizing the crests and troughs of a wave within us, the tension between the two reflect the swing of emotions we experience in any day – our highs and lows, and those unearthly, eerie moments of calm.

In these incendiary times,  we are working on an interactive installation experienced by entering through portal  into a labyrinth of film,  textiles, and encountering guest speakers, poets, musicians, dancers and exiting through a second portal.

Participants in the 2020 event are to date: choreographers/dancers Elizabeth Streb, Kyle Marshall, Zaki A’Jani Marshall, Andre Alabastro, Ann Marie de Angelo, William Ervin, Belinda James, Sonia Franco, Frankie Lee Peterson, Paloma de Vega Centenera, and TK Circus; composers Joseph Schwantner, Paul Jared Newman; cinematographers Nan Melville and Ted Ciesielski; painter/filmmakers Christine Sloan Stoddard; animator/illustrator Pooh Kaye; textile artist Grethe Wittrock; sculptor Bojan Mitrevski. 

bell 8photo by Nan Melville

The original installation was hosted by:

Lilac Preservation Project  7/22-9/22/2017
Waterfront Museum  in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the month of 6/2017
Long Island City Arts Open 2016 – “Landscapes From Below” at W3

Multi-media versions were hosted by
Dixon Place
Hudson Valley Flamenco Festival