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Minnie Rubinski - Vision Mechanics

The Fantastic Life of Minnie Rubinsky, Vision Mechanics

Runtime: approximately 60 minutes

The Fantastic Life of Minnie Rubinsky is a self-guided journey inside Minnie Rubinky’s brain, through scattered memories and visions. Minnie’s mind is a spherical, soft yet structured installation at the centre of the room, shaped precisely like a brain, big enough to accomodate a chair for one person. From the brain various strains of neurological paths, crafted with the same material as the centerpiece and decorated with fairy lights which also represent signals from the nervous system, depart and connect to tv screens with headphones, each showing a memory of the chaotic, unconventional life of Minnie.

The visuals are accompanied by music, not spoken words. The screens aren’t arranged in chronological order, as the audience walks in they can choose which screen to focus on, or pick the next available one. The puppet animated memories of Minnie play in a loop on each screen. The perfectly crafted set designs, puppets, collages and cut-outs bring so much life to Minnie’s memories and the people around her. Her past becomes colourful, then stylish and cool, then again melancholic or exciting, as we navigate through different events and stages through the decades. From her life as an unhappy housewife and mother with a despotic husband, to crazy adventures all over the world with a mysterious lover, from fancy star-studded dinner parties to childhood memories in her father’s office, from managing a prestigious art gallery to her late years spent watching tv and imagining constant pleas for help, invoking Minnie after her generous contributions framing criminals, rescuing her own children and battling wild animals. Minnie’s stories don’t seem plausible nor realistic, but in the world of puppetry everything is possible. However her hallucinations while watching tv in her late years in between taking medication, suggest that there is more than meets the eye. The internal section of the brain - the centerpiece - relives the same scattered thoughts and memories, but this time auditorily, through a deep, crushed voice.

The pain, sadness and confusion of her voice confirm that Minnie’s memories are a blend of lived life experience and imagination, not as an exercise of eccentricity that leads her to exaggerate and make up scenarios, but as a result of dementia. The lack of chronological order, the random appearance of celebrities, Harrison Ford - honorable mention, the inexplicable gaps in her stories all begin to make sense to the audience from inside her brain where, ironically, Minnie is more confused than ever. The contrast between the final realisation of the audience and the progressive confusion Minnie finds herself in, is powerful and thought provoking. It is a touching tribute to Kim Bergsagel’s (Creative Director) own mother, who suffered from dementia in her late years.