Liminal
Portland Winterlights Festival 2020
Liminal opened at the 2020 Portland Winter Light Festival (PDXWLF) along the Willamette River’s Eastbank Esplanade beneath the I-5 overpass. PDXWLF, an annual event of the non-profit Willamette Light Brigade, is a free event that builds community by bringing art and technology to diverse, inclusive audiences while breathing life into Portland’s long gray winter season. Over 200,000 visitors embarked on the 3-day festival to enjoy nearly 100 illuminated art installations and over 70 performances and events throughout the City, all designed around a central theme: dreamscapes.
Size: 615 sf
Location: Portland, OR (Temporary Installation)
Liminal
1: relating to or situated at a sensory threshold; barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response
2: being in an intermediate state, phase, or condition; in-between, transitional
Liminal allows visitors to chart their own unique journey through its labyrinthine interior. There is no singular entry or exit; multiple entry points through narrow vertical slits in the fabric welcome all walks of life to approach from any direction, subverting the traditional queue as each individual leaves behind their conscious self to discover Liminal’s dream-like internal atmosphere.
Visitors are encouraged to pull the fabric along the 2 middle curtain track rings, transforming the path and thresholds of others. Intuition, serendipity, and whim draw dreamers through these shifting thresholds towards Liminal’s core, merging the individual dream into a collective, communal dreamscape.
