In 1989, the Grateful Dead were preparing for their 25th
anniversary. They had reached their “Mega-Dead” period, playing to giant
audiences in stadiums. According to Blair Jackson in “Garcia,” his biography of
Jerry Garcia, “In the spring of 1989 Garcia had told a writer that seeing music
in a stadium is ‘not a pleasant experience generally.” Garcia had added, “I
don’t see why anyone would go to more than one of those shows myself.’” By the
time of that interview, the band had taken action and artist Jan Sawka was
already designing a set for the concert tour that would kick-off in the summer
of 1989.
This set was unique in that Jerry Garcia personally saw to
granting complete artistic freedom, so this set was possibly the only fine-art
installation for a rock band ever (most rock sets are created by commercial
enterprises that service Broadway, Las Vegas, etc.) Here is an image of the set:
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The set was used starting in June 1989 through 1990. Jan
Sawka created the set to interact with lighting effects that would, in a sense,
animate it.
Jan Sawka met with Jerry several times throughout the
process and spent a lot of time talking with Jerry in his trailer during the
initial installation of the set at what was then known as Foxborough Stadium in
Massachusetts. Jerry loved the set and he and Jan Sawka talked about creating
something afterwards that would be the equivalent of the banner-set becoming
entirely animated and touring with pre-recorded music alone. This was how the
idea for “The Voyage” was born.
The idea of “The Voyage” stayed with Jan Sawka, even as that
same year a series of major historical events would affect his life in
wonderful ways. An exile from Poland, where Jan Sawka was a major artist of the
opposition already in his twenties, his life would be rocked (in a good way) by
the fall of the communist regime in the months that followed the opening of the
set for the Grateful Dead. He would travel back to Central Europe to engage in
important artistic statements, one of which was supported by the Grateful
Dead’s Rex Foundation (details about this can be found in this blog post: http://jansawka.com/blog/
In spite of Jerry Garcia’s passing, Jan Sawka continued to
work on the piece, developing the narrative and executing each individual
painting for it over the years. I started working with him on the project as a
producer and director. In 2003, we submitted a 17-minute pilot to the Florence International Biennale of Contemporary
Art. Jan Sawka was awarded a Gold Medal in the Multimedia category for “The
Voyage.”
During the last years of Jan Sawka’s life (he passed away in
2012), we were working on the project with Mickey Hart, who was touring his Mickey
Hart Band at the time. The trailer has music from “Mysterium Terribilum.”
Uncannily, Jan Sawka had just finished creating the last
artworks for “The Voyage” just a few days before passing away on a day that
happens to be the death anniversary of Jerry Garcia. The artists share the date
(not year) of death.
The final spectacle will be 90-minutes long, consisting of 1202 original
artworks that are animated to music. These are meant to be projected on a large
surface, or on an LED-tile screen that is large enough to fill people’s field
of vision. Additional lights to flood the audience at times are also part of
the concept.
“The Voyage” is a rich, visual and artistic trip through the spectrum of being human, from the most beautiful aspects, to the most dark. It is a visionary piece, one that can open portals of perception in and of itself. It is a work of art, as well as an expression of positive values, especially those of human unity, the sort of values our world needs. While I am personally tied to this very closely, I believe that the fulfillment of this project, which has been left unfinished, will turn out to be important to many more people than just myself or my family.
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The purpose of this fundraiser is to put wings into the
sails of this Voyage. In short, to get this production to a position where further fund-raising can occur. The 50K of this crowd-funding effort is meant to cover pre-production, administrative, legal, and promotional expenses that would lead to the full-financing and execution of the project. The full cost of getting the production performance-ready is $600,000, most of which I hope to raise through a number of sources, such as equity, sponsorship and possibly grants. To give you an idea of what makes up the 600K number, the processing of the images alone will run $437,521.37. Here is the section of the budget related to image processing:
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While I hope to meet or exceed the goal of this fund-raiser toward image processing, please note that most of the perks already exist, or their production expenses are foreseen within the scope of this campaign, so regardless of what happens, I will deliver your perks on-time and with gratitude.
Here are images of some of the existing perks:
Here are the three prints that make up the "Woodstock" triptych:
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Here is the "Haiti!" poster:
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Here are samples of the types of images that would be selected for the t-shirt and card:
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