A descendent of the Aboriginal figure that was standing in the foreground of the original von Guerrard painting (taken out by Julia Ciccerone)

he presence of the chorus on the stage totally closes in representation around itself because it is included in itself in the form of one of its elements, the very act of representing. Nothing escapes the performance, this representation, and it henceforth contains within itself its audience. With the interjection of the chorus, however, theatrical representation is split in two because it does not represent only mythic narrative as visible play within the distance of visibility; this very representation is represented through the presence on stage of the chorus members, who witness the hero's struggles and comment on them. The stage is thus split in two, on stage: that of the visible, which is only seen, and that of the visible, which is simultaneously seen and seeing.

Louis Marin Utopia: A Spatial Play (trans. Robert A. Vollrath) New Jersey: Macmillan, 1984 (orig. 1982), p. 67

 

Julia Ciccerone

Take a Seat
oil on canvas, piano hinges 137cm x 290cm