From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Surgical Mirror
This work was a one-time installation. Documentation is fragmentary. [citation needed]
An immersive durational installation in an actual operating theatre, where the audience is split into two groups witnessing Newcastle (stage left) and the interior (stage right) simultaneously. The groups cannot hear the other's narrative and can only see through a glass partition. The same four actors perform both halves in mirror choreography; they age or diminish differently on each side. Both Katitas (unsynchronized): “We can break it. / We will break it. / We are breaking it.” At the interval, the groups swap positions and witness the opposite half, now with different understanding. In the climax, both groups are brought into a central surgical theatre where two Katitas simultaneously outfit Leif's erupting wings with apparatus—one team working as surgeons, one team as engineers. The seagull is embodied only by harsh surgical lights that move autonomously, "operating" on the space itself. At the finale, audience members are given sterile gloves and invited to step into the central space. The choice to participate creates which narrative becomes true. The installation ends with no resolution; the next audience group will begin again, and the cycle will turn differently each time.