ART LIES - ATLANTA

Theatre As Metaphor: Setting the Scene

This issue of Art Lies is situated between theatre and theatricality or, in more direct terms, between the theatre and its metaphors. The trigger for this inquiry was the result of the continued disdain for—and obsession with—theatrical tropes that preoccupy certain strains of contemporary artistic practice, as traced by a series of exhibitions over the past year. Out of these exhibitions, and the notions of theatre they brought to bear, grew the pressing need to readdress the legacies and the pervasiveness of metaphors related to the stage that continue to permeate the discourses of painting, sculpture, performance, installation, photography and film and video. What this issue is not is an inquiry into a specific form or tradition. Nor is it a guidebook to all of the likely—and unlikely—places from which theatre, theatricality and its antecedents might be thought to emerge. Instead, it is meant to function as a collection of statements that interrogate the primacy of theatre as metaphor in not only contemporary visual and literary contexts but beyond. And, much like W. J. T. Mitchell, who identified the vital signs of a “pictorial turn” in contemporary culture in the mid 1990s, one might ask what the characteristics of a “theatrical turn” would be, if there were ever such a turn. Rather than accept the image that the theatre offers of itself—both in vision and language—a theory of a theatrical turn would surely have to contend with the possibility that it is through this very mode that all cultural and social exchanges are mediated.

- Anjali Gupta, Editor & Aram Moshayedi, Guest Editorial Contributor

ART LIES is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to stimulating critical discourse; documenting and fostering connections within the contemporary visual arts communities of Texas; and educating a national and international audience about the diverse activities of those communities.

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