THEATRONA CORONA 28-MAR-2020 Print

In intriguing collage, inspired by notorious freak shows, queer art, camp subculture and revolting Dada aesthetics, Gilad Padva genuinely demonstrates the theatrical, performative, spectacular and sensationally grotesque media framing of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Notably, the Theatrona Corona is a mesmerizing elegy to the victims of this tragic global crisis. This collage conspicuously hybridizes deformed human bodies, sexes, genders, sexualities, generations, Eros and Thanatos. It reflects the artist's angst and his criticism of the politicians' cynical manipulations of this pandemic catastrophe. This artwork has been created by Dr. Gilad Padva, one of the prominent contemporary scholars in cinema studies, popular culture, men's studies and queer theory. In addition to his revealing, timely art, Dr. Padva is the author of Queer Nostalgia in Cinema and Pop Culture (2014) and Straight Skin, Gay Masks, and Pretending to Be Gay on Screen (Routledge, 2020) and co-editor of Sensational Pleasures in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture (2014), Intimate Relationships in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture: The Phallic Eye (2017), and Leisure and Cultural Change in Israeli Society (Routledge, 2020). Gilad Padva genuinely exposes his most intimate feelings in this remarkable artwork!