Act III: The Final Judgment: A far off voice finally broke the spell, and he began again to piece together the intricate pattern of the stars 1980

Arthur Tress made this intriguing collage, Act III, sometime around now, using…well, it’s hard to say exactly, isn’t it? The whole thing has this dreamy, surreal quality, like a stage set for a play that exists only in your mind. I love the way Tress brings together these disparate elements, like the old-fashioned telephone and the slices of melon, and sets them against this backdrop that feels both artificial and strangely organic. There’s a real tension between the flatness of the collage and the illusion of depth, a sense of things being both present and absent at the same time. That crusty, drippy effect he’s got going on over the phone and melon, it’s a real standout, it brings to mind the work of someone like Jess Collins, another master of collage and visual poetry. In the end, this piece embodies the idea that art can embrace ambiguity.