Stage 1997

Curator: Catherine Yass's "Stage," part of the Tate Collection, offers a beguiling vision of constructed space. Editor: My first impression is a sense of destabilization. The colors and angles create a vertiginous effect, almost like peering into the architectural guts of a dream. Curator: The imagery evokes the invisible frameworks that uphold our perceptions. Scaffolding, rigging, all hinting at the support structures beneath grand performances, both theatrical and societal. Editor: Absolutely. It makes me think about the behind-the-scenes labor, the often-unseen effort that shapes our experiences. The blue almost feels like an x-ray, showing what’s usually hidden. Curator: That inverted palette invites us to question the roles of foreground and background, presence and absence. What we take for granted as solid and reliable is revealed as constructed and contingent. Editor: In the end, it’s a striking reminder that everything we see, feel, and experience is supported by a foundation that is just as vital as the finished product. Curator: Yes, Yass gives a sense of the unseen labor required to make a spectacle happen.