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7 Willow Street

contact: channelb4@gmail.com

In the late '80s Jonathon Stearns co-designed/installed a number of thematic nightclub installations for 7 WILLOW STREET, a live music/club venue in Portchester. Many artists collaborated over the 4-5 year span

7 WILLOW STREET featured a large stage and wood dance floor. We dragged old phone booths up from the basement (the building was an old Italian lodge hall) and used them as Go-Go dancer platforms. 16mm movie projectors and banks of automated slide projectors cast images throughout the space.
Brenda testing phone-booth dance platform

View from the DJ booth, which was often manned by MOBY prior to his larger fame. The theme here was the Garden of Eden. The large murals done by Brenda (Sypal) Williams were done on paper and hung with Velcro. The "tree" sculpture to stage left represented the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and spread out across the ceiling.

Detail of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (spray foam, wood, irrigation tubing, chicken wire, found objects)
Detail of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Detail of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Detail of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Detail of Tree of Life (from Garden of Eden theme) this tree was across the room from its evil counterpart and fitted in front of the lighting booth
Detail of Tree of Life (from Garden of Eden theme) + Wave mural (by Brenda)
Detail of Tree of Life (from Garden of Eden theme) spray foam, wood, chicken wire
Wave mural by Brenda, with reflection of her Giraffe mural in mirror that was above bar. There were 7 murals in all, 3 on each side of the room and one on the backstage wall.
Detail of Tree of Life with Giraffe mural (by Brenda)
Giant hand fountain (with mural by Brenda) water filled up the palm and poured between fingers (fiberglass, wood, chicken wire, fake stone spray)
Giant hand fountain (with murals by Brenda)
Waterfall (working) with strobe light for Jungle theme
detail of Waterfall
detail of Waterfall
Rear projection oversize frames suspended over dance floor. They were made of plastic fruit, baby dolls and assorted brick-a-brac spray-painted gold. made with Natasha Babaian
detail of projection frame
Silhouette cut-outs mounted on ceiling (part of a theme of modern hieroglyphics)
A pair of huge steel half-rings donated from nearby theatrical scene shop SHOWTECH (where Stearns also worked) were used as the frame for a large and overly ambitious planetarium style projection dome. The slide projectors were mounted in the frame, automatically changing every few seconds. The other half-ring was used on stage as a lighting grid.
Dome framing before muslin affixed. Steel half-ring was mounted on scaffolding. Ribs and slats wood.
Dome as fabric is attached
Steel half-rings delivered to Willow Street.