Victoria Wallace

Chimirage - In the Theatre of the Mind

Gallery in the Attic, 140 1/2 Hunter Street, Peterborough

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man, in his time plays many parts".
~Shakespeare's character, Jaques, from As You Like It

The show is opening at Gallery in the Attic on Friday the 13th, a date we thought nicely aligned with our theme. The exhibition is entitled "Chimirage: In the Theatre of the Mind". The work we'll have on exhibit includes Roz Hermant's unique photomontages, her composite photographs joining two or more photographs to create illusions of unreal subjects, and my original acrylic and encaustic paintings.

Featuring a theme inspired by circuses, fairground or amusement park rides, traditional French carnival, and commedia dell'arte (a form of popular comedy developed in Italy during the 16th to 18th centuries, with masked stock characters generally representing fixed social types, such as foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado), our works address the playful, mystical, sometimes macabre fantasy dream-world of these settings. Carnival and commedia dell-arte seem to metaphorically reflect life - as Shakespeare's character, Jaques, from As You Like It says, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man, in his time plays many parts". That quote was a bit of a jumping off point for us thematically.