Into the Wilde

Having been profoundly affected by encountering the following statement today, I simply cannot pass up the opportunity to spread its influence…

Consider this for a moment:

“It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.”

Upon first reading, this may strike you as a rather used-up idea in reference to contemporary art. However, take another moment to contemplate the fact that the art you thought you were reflecting on is, in fact, REFLECTING BACK ON YOU.

As a video installation exhibit currently on display at Participant Inc. (Chelsea, NY), Dorian is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 19th Century novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Read the expanded description of the show if you wish, but my connection with it and The Radiator Game is that Dorian, both in this exhibit and Wilde’s novel, “exists as a contemporary superstar, a mirror to our own narcissism – desirable, unknowable, destroyed by vacant ambition”.

Suffice it to say, I don’t necessarily think that Sir Radiator needs to be destroyed (though this would serve as quite the sci-fi-esque ending), but I do think that at the same time people are desiring not to be him, due to the pain and mockery he is enduring, they should be finding him desirable, because he possesses something they do not – perhaps a key, perhaps an answer, perhaps the way out of this game!

All of the performers in Dorian (which I intend to see in person next week) are playing some version of themselves, ranging from – in reality – a gender-bending drag impresario or a renowned Theremin player, to the slightly more common, but nonetheless unique, media and performance artists. The fact that each character utilizes their own instrument also holds symbolic meaning.

Which brings me back to my original inspiration – we should all set incorporating a true piece of our identity into The Game as a top priority, because despite the fact that we will have spectators, we will ultimately serve as spectators to none other than ourselves.