The World is a StageCoach Effect

(”As you like it” Act II Scene 7)

1977

mixed technique 94x124x10 cm (LED internally lit)

Dedicated to William Shakespeare

In ‘As You Like It’ William Shakespeare asserts ‘All the world’s a stage’: stories interweave, actors enter and exit, sometimes alone and at other times in a group.

The world defies a simple definition. The complexity of the universe leads us to accept the theory that something will always remain unexplained; we come close to the truth only to find that conclusions are later refuted by new discoveries. Progress nullifies previous theories. In this way, the world can be seen as an optical illusion, an illusion of our altered senses, a ‘stage-coach effect’ (strobe effect), in which a wheel seems to rotate in a counter-intuitive direction.

Here, the world is a stagecoach on a stage. We do not know when the curtain will rise or fall, although much can be expected to happen in the meantime.