Circus Moira Orfei. The entrance for the tigers 1995

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this drawing, Circus Moira Orfei. The entrance for the tigers, with ink on paper. Look at how the line becomes the architecture of a circus, a world of impermanence and spectacle, where the boundary between excitement and danger is blurred. The ink must have flowed quickly. The drawing is immediate, and you can sense the artist on the spot, quickly capturing the scene. I imagine Krupa, on location, quickly trying to capture this circus as it briefly inhabits its spot on the earth. You can see him, quickly looking at the world and drawing what's there. His lines are like an X-ray that reveal an underlying infrastructure of the circus itself. And I love that it is about the entrance for the tigers: that line between inside and outside; that moment before the performance. All the hopes and fears of the circus are held there.