Proscenium

proscenium, noun. In a modern theatre: the front part of the stage; spec. the area in front of the curtain, often including the curtain itself and the arch of framework which holds it.
         1860 All Year Round No. 44. 417 
“The appearance of the audience, as seen from the proscenium… is highly remarkable in its union of vastness with compactness.”

In the original presentation of Proscenium, photographs from this series were installed within a cavernous, out of use lecture hall made to look like a dance club. The installation included images of spaces, bodies, and other visual signs or texts that register as gay or queer as well as house music, coloured lights, a disco ball, and video projections. As each viewer entered the installation space they were thrust into a context that mimicked the gay bars familiar to anyone who visited such spaces in the 1980’s and early to mid 90’s.  Just as a closeted person might transform upon entering a gay bar or as a drag queen taking the stage, viewers of Proscenium found themselves affected profoundly as they encountered a space they either knew or had no knowledge of.  At times, viewers felt welcome, at other times unwelcome.  Some viewers recognized the code found in the sounds of Sylvester, the photographs of men with red bandanas in their pockets, and the hypnotic spell of lights and disco ball- others did not.  By recreating my memories of such spaces, my hope was to demonstrate the conventionality of gay spaces and map out one way in which gayness is performed, viewed, confounded, constructed, and celebrated.