ANDREA: You talk about accident and chance, and that you imply that in your work. How did that happen with each collage?
ARTHUR: I work with a combination of spontaneity, accident, and manipulation. I would wonder around the
different rooms of the hospital and gather different objects and materials that I’d find and then almost uncon-
sciously throw together these assemblages. About two years previous to the hospital series, I did a lot of work
with stenciling so some of the pictures are beautifully stenciled. It’s a combination of stencils and paint etc.
The Throne of Aphrodite with the chair and the string, that was the last one I did in the series. I had gone from
the second floor and worked my way to the basement and then worked my way up to the roof. Back then what
they thought cured TB was to sit outdoors a lot, so they had these wonderful chairs. The Throne of Aphrodite
was springtime and there’s a corresponding piece called Throne of Bacchus, which is autumn. I had a very
transforming experience that inspired this. I went to Egypt and a young guy opened up one of the tombs for me.
Arthur Tress, Flowers of Wonder, 1986.
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