The Story of Gwendolyn Gila
In the year 2019…deep underground in a secret laboratory…a mad scientist fawns over his favorite pet, Gwendolyn the Gila Monster.
As Dr. Kosmo fiddles with dials and buttons, Gwendolyn looks content, sleepily eating her favorite treat, lacewing flies. After making a few calculations, Dr. Kosmo continues his experiment, teaching Gwendolyn to dance to the songs he plays on a bugle.
Suddenly, a freak solar flare fries his equipment. The lab is plunged into darkness and Gwendolyn goes limp for a moment, the wires monitoring her brainwaves are singed where they contact her skin. The flies she eats are also affected by the phenomenon; their wings have started to glow slightly. Concerned for the life of his pet, Dr. Kosmo feeds her more lacewing flies and mists her with water. Now fully awake, Gwendolyn starts to glow. As she grows brighter, she becomes larger.
Gwendolyn is now the size of a desk, hungry and confused. After devouring anything fit for a lizard in the cramped room, she bursts through the reinforced lab door and up many flights of stairs. She emerges onto Vine Street to a huge crowd of onlookers. As more people gather, snapping flash photos and yelling, Gwendolyn is enraged. The only way for these people to remain safe is for Dr. Kosmo to play his bugle and guide her towards the river.
(Or so the story goes…)
Golden Brown and BLINK
In 2017, Golden Brown performed in the first ever BLINK parade with a project called Underpants Dance. Wearing light-up, inflatable fat-suits, four friends waddled down the street with sequenced LED lights illuminating their way. Cincinnati had never seen crowds like this downtown, it was truly amazing to behold. Two years later we were given the opportunity to be involved with the BLINK parade again. Not to be outdone, we went big, proposing a project called Gwendolyn Gila Monster, a 30 foot long, glowing lizard that eats people dressed like flies. With some help from our friends at Artworks, we received enough funding that it seemed possible.
What is BLINK?
BLINK is one of the largest light, art and projection mapping events in the United States. The second ever BLINK, in 2019, was a four day free event that spanned more than 30 city blocks and included Northern Kentucky and downtown Cincinnati. The festival-like atmosphere was attended by an estimated 1.25-1.5 million people. It’s main attraction was a 32 foot long Gila monster named Gwendolyn…
Gwendolyn at CampSITE
After Blink we were fortunate to be invited to install Gwendolyn at CampSITE, the sculpture park, in Camp Washington.
