ABSTRACT
The acrobat’s apparatus is a tool designed for the purpose of a particular action whose implementation removes it from the contingency of everyday time and space. The time of the apparatus reflects a simultaneous process of ideation and execution. As for the space of any of the Hanlon-Lees’ tools, household objects, furniture, and the myriad structural features of the cityscape find their textures, angles, and surfaces repurposed for use in the apparatus’ universe. Edmond de Goncourt, édouard Manet, Catulle Mendès, Edgar Degas, and J. K. Huysmans incorporate the acrobat’s apparatus as an aesthetic device. To different ends and with exciting results, these men willingly followed the Hanlon-Lees into an unfiltered and porous territory marked by temporal and spatial confusion.
