Abraham Burickson’s Odyssey Works

Odyssey Works was founded in San Francisco in 2001 by Director Abraham Burickson and Matthew Purdon, who at the time reconsidered their previous work – theater, writing and visual art – and began to explore ways to bridge the gap between artist and audience. Collaborating artists worked intensively with Burickson to find a more audience-centric mode of creativity. The result was a series of productions tailored to a single-person audience. Odyssey Works productions consider all aspects of the urban landscape as stages for performance. Pieces have been produced in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin, TX. The Group will perform in London in 2016.

The Odyssey Works cast of artists include award-winning poets, designers, programmers, an architect, playwrights, artists, dancers, and a dream expert. The core team members, Abraham Burickson, Ayden L.M. Grout, Ariel Abrahams, and Jen Harmon, were joined in this production by composer Travis Weller, Designer Danielle Baskin, and a score of other artists and actors. Every Odyssey Works production involves, also, the participation of the friends and family of the participant, and of scores of members of the public who come not as audience but as parts of the experience, helping to make it happen.

The New York Times has called Odyssey Works “A beautiful inefficiency”, and former participant Monica Akin has referred to it as “Like walking into the chambers of your own heart and then finding someone else standing inside there, too.”

Read FastCo Design article at Designing For Misuse: Odyssey Works’ Abraham Burickson On How Architecture Inspires His Art

Photo Credit: Ayden L.M. Grout