Act II: The Voyage: They stumbled upon dark Altars hinting of strange Rites 1980

Here we have Arthur Tress's photo collage, "Act II: The Voyage: They stumbled upon dark Altars hinting of strange Rites," made sometime after 1940. The scene is, like, a theater set for the subconscious. I can imagine Tress piecing this together—the layering, the cutting. You know, it's not just photography; it's a hands-on construction, a physical act. I feel like he's thinking about how we stage our inner lives, the dramas we enact. And this poor little doll-like figure, like a voodoo effigy studded with pins—what's that about? There’s something both vulnerable and accusatory about its pose, lost in a forest of symbols. I can see echoes of Joseph Cornell in the dreamlike assemblage, maybe hints of Francesca Woodman’s dark theatrics. Artists are always riffing off each other, right? Tress is making props for a theater of the mind. We’re all just trying to make sense of it all, one snapshot, one collage, one show at a time.