Dominoes

Station House Opera  

Station House Opera's commission for CREATE09 took as its starting point the simplest of ideas... a line of dominoes.

On Sunday 26th July 2009, thousands of concrete blocks were used to create a moving sculpture unfolding over the course of the day, creating a new space in the city, a physical link in between the five boroughs hosting the Olympic Games. More than 750 volunteers helped make this unique day happen.

As part of CREATE09 and the winner of the Bank of America CREATE Art Award, the thousands of breeze block dominoes made their way southwards through East and South East London, travelling by boat down Regent's Canal in Tower Hamlet and through the Greenwich foot tunnel, finishing at dusk in Greenwich in a performance at Wren’s Old Royal Naval College.

In 2010 Dominoes was recreated for the opening of the Diese Festival in Dijon.

Dominoes is a site specific project which can be re-created in different contexts.

The film
In 2010 a film of the 2009 event was produced. The film combines the footage of the live event on Sunday 26th July 2009 together with new footage of the blocks wending their way through West Ham cemetery, a house, a Victorian sewer, and a primary school in Hackney, “joining” the crowd in Mile End, through Matt’s Gallery, on the canal and Thames, creating games in Island Gardens, going down the stairs of the foot tunnel, reaching the Royal Naval College and leading to the performance.