EFFIE GU

Costume and prop design

Costume and prop design

"ITERATING" is a dance performance combining installation and multimedia that discuss the status quo of the internet including social media, data surveillance and censorship. As the content we consume online is increasingly personalised, it creates environments and communities that are smaller and homogeneous. These space are called “filter bubbles” or “echo chambers” as they are the closed system of people and information. It creates an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered.

This performance is aim to raise a conversation with the audience about the homogenous of the internet under the development of the technology.

Credits for performance (Instagram)

Created by me @effieguyuan, Choreographer @iris_ath, Dancer @gretagauhe @lilredddancer, Costume designer @rane_jiang, Video pattern by @aijin.ying @meiying_d, Sound designer by @lililili_lu, Videographer @leizhu.leo

03.03.2020.

John Lyons Theatre, London

Portrait of Human is an experimental performance installation. In a deconstructed landscape of future visions and past theories, the piece investigates the notion of what is human in our ever changing world.

This is a durational performance, where audiences are invited to enter, move around, and explore the space. Layers of costume, movement, space, light, sound and performance, are woven into a kaleidoskope.The text on the left shows our individual brief which consist our performance content.

Stone Nest, 136 Shaftesbury Ave, London

March 14 - 15th, 2019

“The Paradise” is an individual exhibition based on the idea of bedlam, asylum and madness.

I created the set around the idea of an unrealistic asylum for the main installation which represented the whole theater space. I took elements of Iceland’s basalt columns as a sense of loneliness and quietness for the installation and used plaster to give a fragile and pure feeling. 

During the exhibition, my partner and I were dressed like doctors leading and giving prescription to the audience during their “visiting” as a performance. There was also a psychological questionnaire zone and a projector which plays clips from movies about mental disorder patients all the time.

09.12.2016

My stage model works between 2014 to 2016.

Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Costume & Character Design

Including:

Breathless/ TV Human/ Plastic Human/ Spaceman/ Surveillance Characters

February - June, London

Inspired by the ancient and contemporary Athenian culture, Moor explores the human's inability to escape his nature. Stubborn obliviousness to the past has condemned him to a cyclical fate, repeating history and drastically transforming his environment in the process. Through recycled metaphorical and symbolic images and a unique sculptural language of movement and gestures, Moor challenges our notion of a distinguishable past and present.

I made a shallow sink on the ground and covered the entire stage with a waterproof fabric to prevent clay from soiling the theater. Also absorbed from previous workshops, a transparent film was hung behind the sink for the actors to pass through.

30.04.2017

<Alcestis> is a theatre play adapted by Greek tragedy <Alcestis>. Using thick veil fabric and reflective floor to built the whole stage.

June, 2015

Shanghai

<Godfather> is a theatre play adapted by film <Godfather>.

March 2nd, 2016

Shanghai

“1945 band” is a band consists of my friends who love music and always trying new things. We planned to make a new media live-concert and I was in charged of the set design cooperating with the multimedia department and lighting department.

So I decide to transform the whole theatre space into a live house without auditorium that reserved half of the theater for audience to stand, cheer, jump, or interact.

June 3rd, 2015

Shanghai

“THE MASK" is adapted from the Chinese historical legends called "King Lan Ling" who suffered all disgrace in order to revenge after his father killed and mother seized by his uncle--the new emperor who also trained him as a beauty of dancer. To awaken his courage and uprightness, he dressed in his father's MASK and felt that there was a strong strength that finally led him achieved his revenge but also got deranged.

I worked as a part of sets & props designer team, cooperated with lighting and costume designers around the concept that “No one would like to wear masks to live, though, when we are lost in life and unconsciously forget real self under the masks, we will usually neglect all affections around.”

May, 2015

Shanghai

A studio theatre performance adapted from [ Le Petit Prince ]. Collaborated with directing programme in Shanghai Theatre Academy as a set designer.

May 18th, 2015

Shanghai

“Bloody Factory” is a 15-minute performance criticizing the social problems on account of the irrational system.

The story line is about a factory that keep producing qualified “human” for society but interrupt by a disqualified product (“human”) on one day. However, the failed “human” reject to be fixed by the factory so “he” will be recycled and throw away.

For the set, I choose the factory assembly line which is a common phenomenon in developing countries where workers live in repetitive lives to represent the assimilation of values. I also use knitting organs to give audience a feeling of cruel but absurd.

10.02.2017

With the invention of the camera, internet and new technology, the act of watching and being watched become highlighted in our everyday life, which creates a surveillance system by unconsciousness. The boundary between them is blurring gradually through invading of privacy and the excessing of authority. The characters under the lens hide from the real world but expose to it at the same time that creating a prejudice of identity and standard of “perfection” at the same time.

This performance focus on the relationship of audience and performers, transform the audience from the watchers to being watched. Through its process, both of the performers and spectators become a part of the surveillance system behind it that link to identity, privacy and authority issues. 

This performance is collaborated with Aijin Ying (ins: aijin.ying) and invited by Yuxiao from Culture, Criticism and Curation programme, Central Saint Martins.

Central Saint Martins, London 

June 18th, 2019

“Processing…” is a multi-disciplinary production that aims to raise a conversation with the audience about the identity of human beings in the contemporary world.

With the invention of social media, data collection and surveillance, the act of watching becomes highlighted in our everyday life, which transforms us from the subject to the object. We are constantly being observed, as our data becomes collected and forms reports and predictions on our behaviours. We voluntarily upload ourselves online to be seen, but we have no idea and control over who is watching.

With the use of installations, choreography and projections, we will be examining the different ways of which people access information in space, both through physical perception and representations of the space.

As the creator of this piece, we want to highlight the control of data to emphasise the power relations it brings. The piece examines the connection established between the subject and the object within the act of watching with a humorous twist, transforming the audience into an unpredictable part of the performance.

Romantzo, 3 Anaxagora, Athens, 105 52 

June 14 - 15th, 2019

“The Shadow Box” is an interactive performance held in the street of Central Saint Martins and Barbican Conservatory. Using the way of the traditional Chinese shadow puppetry to indicate the process of making and bring Chinese dinning culture to people.

With a performer standing inside the movable “food machine”, it services mini food model of Chinese snacks to the audience. During their waiting time for the food, they can watch the process of food-making from the front.

15.03.2018 & 20.06.2018

Unrealistic Life is my final show in Central Saint Martins. It is a 30-min live performance using hand-made models, puppets and installations as the main performance media, combing with live video and audience participation.

It is a work discuss about the unconscious world of sleep which create “a life journey” and the relationship between reality and dream. Gathering social problems of working pressure, assimilation of values, educational disadvantage and death.

03.05.2018

This is a three-month teamwork that aims to finalize a public performance of about 40 minutes in Athens by developing in the form of group discussions, design and workshops.

I led two workshops during our process. The 1st one is a site-specific workshop in a small valley in the center of Athens. There was an abandoned station facing the bustling city and against the cliff where the Parthenon temple sits above. I provided ropes, large courier bags and  balloons to let them combine the senses of the environment with the natural materials to make performance.

The 2nd one is a workshop about materials/ lighting/forms of objects. This time, I combined the elements already selected in previous workshops, such as water bags, transparent plastic films and lamps, to rearrange our rehearsal space for exploration.

03-04.2017

“What is the human?” is precisely the question we want to explore. The human is not as human as the objects created by humans. The technolo-gy was not invented by humans, rather the other way around. Human evolution is leading towards existing outside ourselves, extending our bodies to new limits, which in all other species is only achieved by adaptation. Our brain is the main receptor of this continual change in the human existence, it works as an artifact that is molded in accordance with the material culture. We are an unfinished project whose future will never be certain.

We, humans, are possibly the only animal that has systematically designed its own extinction. In a world where the first genetically modified baby was born last year, when will the last human by evolution die and first human by design take over?

AA Barrel vault, London

January 25th, 2019

A Sound installation with live performance and audience interaction.

Relation between Space and Sounds/Experience / Manifesto/ The Others.

We put grid on the floor and stick coordinates to mark the space meter by meter. Audience will receive a invitation card with the floor plan guide and coordinates on it. They will follow this guide to complete their journey through this 45min performance. They have two choices for height — standing and sitting, also hear different qualities and volume of sound from different speakers. 

November 3rd, 2018

AA Barrel vault