Steven Arnold: Exotic Tableu - A Retrospective - Hardcover

Product Description: "Sometimes I'm not sure I like being nailed to the world tableau, even though it is the one I myself use the most often in referring to these pieces. I also think of them as magical Rorschach tonkas. The world tonka implies a certain usefulness as an object for meditation. I like that. What the hell, call them tablonkas! Or tongleaux! Whatever they are, I've found great happiness in this form. It uses every part of me. Here at last is my puppet theater reborn, my ideas for films, ballet, opera, my poetry, my assemblage, the sculpture, the decor, the painting and video and the lithographs. Here I can make my own world without compromise. I can't be precise about the difference between a tableau and a still life, but in my mind, the tableau is always staged, often elaborately so. Nothing about it is left to chance. All is artifice, deliberate, set up. As long as I can remember I've had what might be called a freeze-frame eye. Maybe all artists freeze-frame their visions". Steven Arnold