Kaidan

Kaidan is a collaborative site-specific video and sound installation created for Halloween in the Kyoto Garden of Holland Park, London. Commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the work drew on the Japanese tradition of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, in which ghost stories are told by candlelight until darkness gathers and something uncanny is expected to appear. May and Martin A. Smith translated that structure into a sequence of projected scenes, illuminated masks, bamboo screens, and layered sound, turning the garden into a staged encounter with suspense, narrative, and place.

Fear here is produced through staging rather than illusion alone. Projection, darkness, and sound reorder the garden into a place of anticipation, where the site feels newly charged and slightly unstable. It is an early example of a method that recurs throughout May’s work: using moving image to alter how a location is inhabited, remembered, and believed.

Additional notes

• Created by Alex May with Martin A. Smith.
• Commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for Halloween in Kyoto Garden, Holland Park, London.
• Inspired by Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai and by Yotsuya Kaidan, one of the most influential Japanese ghost stories.
• Presented as a series of seven site-specific video installations using custom-built bamboo projection screens, illuminated hanging masks, and multiple soundtracks.
• Created for the Kyoto Garden site and not available for exhibition in another format.