The newest art installation at Daphne.Arts is about a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe: Annabel Lee. I had the opportunity to visit it before it opened officially on September 2nd. At the landing you have to follow some instructions regarding the setting of your viewer and you have to accept a HUD that will add a black strip on the top and the bottom of your screen and that will provide background music and sound and most importantly the poem, you’re going to experience in a particular way at Daphne.Arts.
Annabel Lee – A new experience at Daphne.Arts / Landing at Daphne.Arts and at the art Installation itself
Once you arrive in the installation you’re surrounded by a foggy, dense atmosphere. The wind is blowing quite strong, you look over a bay and see some light above the mountains, a building and something on the op of a mountain. Candles lead you to the nearby shore and when you walk further, a way builds up leading you over the water… and vanishing behind you… so move on.
In the meanwhile you hear the poem ….
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes! – that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Impressions of Annabel Lee – A new experience at Daphne.Arts (1)
Reaching the other shore across the bay the candles lead you to an old manor that is abandonned for many years. Inside you see the remainings of a once luxury life, clearly long gone, but you can still almost sense the former inhabitants. On the backfront of the manor you can walk to another shore and have a view back to the manor. It’s place was selected very smart providing perfect views in a quite rough mountain environment.
Impressions of Annabel Lee – A new experience at Daphne.Arts (2)
The candle way leads up to the sepulchre of Annabel Lee. Two angles guard her grave.
Annabel Lee is the last complete poem by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849). Like many of Poe’s poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The love of the narrator and Annabel Lee is strong enough that it extends beyond the grave and the narrator believes their two souls are still entwined. (taken from wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annabel_Lee)
Impressions of Annabel Lee – A new experience at Daphne.Arts (3)
The installation of Annabel Lee at Daphne.Arts was created by Sheldon Bergman (sheldonbr) and Angelika Corral, who also own DaphneArts, opened in March 2016. Angelika reads the poem for us. Her voice, the hazy atmosphere, the many pictures let us literally dive into the particular love between the narrator and Annabel Lee.
I was impressed.
Landmark to Annabel Lee at Daphne.Arts
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