Theaters of Fiction

Theaters of Fiction presents work by artists who have utilized a variety of means and media to explore the illusion and spectacle that is the theater. Rather than depicting live actors or audience members, they look outside the performance itself, utilizing the space in which it unfolds to explore the enchantment and fallacy of fantasy. Some of the artists included in the exhibition address the theater and opera’s historic associations with power, privilege, and wealth, while others have sought out sites of more democratic and popular entertainment to explore themes of escapism. Dwelling on the absences present in spaces where fictions are staged, these works reveal the structures that envelop culture and the fabrications with which we entertain ourselves

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.