In 1993, curator and theatre director Wolfgang Storch invited 19 contemporary German artists to contribute to an exhibition challenging the relationship between art and theatre. Three years after the invitation was issued, "The Scenic Eye: Visual Art and the Theatre" was born.

The exhibition, currently on display at the Chiang Mai University Art Museum, showcases works in a wide range of media including installation, photography, video and sculpture.

The works featured in "The Scenic Eye" offer fresh perspectives on art and the theatre; further, they question the conventions that define both of these artistic realms today. While theatre and art have a greater affinity now than they have had in the past, Storch felt there was still room - and indeed a vital need - for new forms of creative expression in theatre.

Allowing complete autonomy in terms of what they could produce for this exhibition, "The Scenic Eye" offered artists the rare opportunity to experiment with theatrical themes free from the confines of traditional theatre. The result is an exhibition of extraordinarily imaginative works that provide the viewer with a rich and complex display of imagery and sound.

Relationships are a key feature of this show, and a number of the works deal with the interplay between audience and performer. One such work is Thomas Schütte's playfully entitled "Silly Lilies", an installation that represents a kind of play within a play. Knee-high, brightly coloured figures of moulded rubber are separated by delicately mounted flower prints - the connection and separation bringing a tension between the bland innocence of the flowers and the intensity of the figures themselves, yellow in jealousy, red in fury, blue in anger.

Hans Peter Kuhn's "Middle Place", a deceptively simple installation consisting of a chair on a small stage surrounded by four tower-mounted speakers, invites the viewer to participate in an emotional experience generated by subtly shifting sounds. In an interview with the curator, Kuhn declared that "for me it's not about showing, but rather about generating something specific. I don't want to present a position or a story or transmit something. Instead, I want to provoke a feeling or an impression in the audience. I'm not interested in showing emotions, but rather in generating emotions."

History is another common theme in the show. Klaus vom Bruch's "Artaud Addresses the Soldiers" is a highly inventive installation composed of a small greenhouse with images projected both inside and out, accompanied by a cacophonous - yet peculiarly fitting - soundtrack.

Vom Bruch's installation utilises imagery from World War II, extracted from documentary films or filmed off a television. What vom Bruch calls the "dances of death" - including footage of German soldiers collapsing in front of their tank; smiling children only recently freed from the horrors of Dachau; and a Mexican skeleton dancing eerily in the air, suspended from a child's hand - confront the viewer with the stark realities of warfare (warfare being, for vom Bruch, the highest form of

theatre).

In Qin Yufen's spectacular "The Legend of Colour" - a work that evokes memories of China's Cultural Revolution - twenty three-metre-high figures tower over the viewer, arranged in a kind of "chorus", clothed in brilliant blue and yellow Mao jackets. The effectiveness of the piece is enhanced by the recording of subtle whispers and propaganda music emanating from somewhere within the figures.

The overall effect is overwhelming.

The theme of costume is featured in Rosemarie Trockel's hypnotic audio-visual piece "The Importance of Wearing Clothes". A rapid series of abstract images of textile patterns flash before the viewer, accompanied by a driving techno beat, before giving way to a slow, circular pan around a group sitting on a stage.

The viewer gets the impression that the group is embroiled in a discussion that surely concerns something important, but with the voices deliberately obscured by a howling wind, that importance stubbornly refuses to reveal itself.

The installations, photographs, videos and sculptures aggressively and creatively deconstruct not only our notions of what theatre is, but also our preconceptions of what

theatre ought to be. As such, the works openly demand something from the viewer - but when approached with openness and imagination, the pieces in this exhibition come together to create an immensely rewarding experience.

Tomorrow is the last day to see the exhibition at Chiang Mai University Art Museum. Opening hours are 9am to 5pm. Call (053) 218 280 or (053) 944 833 or visit www.finearts.cmu.-ac.th/cmu/.

Michael Abhainn

Special to The Nation