"Squeeze in," the MC pushed everyone a little closer together.  It was nearly pitch black in the Petit Theatre Baraque -- 30 lucky spectators would see the production.

Blair and I are not "habitués" (regulars) of many art events, but when I received the invitation to this little circus, part of the Nomad Evenings events at the Cartier Foundation, I couldn't resist.

We've been seeking events that describe our life, our age.  We're making eventual "fossils" that will represent this year, 2006.  Blair painted the outside of this circus tent  as his first fossil.

Someday our relics will be found by a future civilization who will base TV shows, movies and Halloween costumes on the foibles of the "oil" age.  Imagine kids wearing Blair and Laurie costumes in 32006.

As the audience settled, I had the sense of our own wedding, which took place in a gazebo, not unlike the tent we were in.  This structure resembled a two story yurt, a round cloth building with a conical roof.  We stood against a rail on the upper story, and all the events transpired on the ground floor below.

The performance began with German opera music, and two larger-than-life puppets were slowly illuminated as they sang to one another.  The theme of the theatre was the relationship of "two" -- the couple who ran this "circus", performing all the acts themselves, entertaining us.

The ringmaster wore a vintage circus coat, and a beat-up red nose.  His wife, the assistant, wore a mask which made her look very attentive, but her words muffled.  At one point, the two emerged, with very long noses and funny shoes, speaking gibberish, to music and dance.  This charming playfulness turned into an argument that eventually destroyed the ring.

Act II, of sorts, was performed in smaller ring, made of fabric suspended from the bottom edge of our balcony, and "cinched" to make a small central ring.  The two characters performed on their knees, to give the image of being further away, smaller.  At this point they introduced performing rats, who ran on tightropes and acted out a short piece from Romeo and Juliet.  Finally one fat gray Norwegian wharf rat was lifted on a pole, with a cage, to nearly the top of the tent.  A single pinpointed light illuminated him and the particles of dust falling in the air.  His enormous whiskers sparkled in the light as he escaped the cage and jumped to the ring below.

I am in constant pursuit of fossils that I might distribute to the far reaches of our civilization:  a beautiful button, a slipper found in the road.  I am buying stamps so I might jot a note or a sketch and dispatch it quickly.

I think these electronic communiqués will never pass the test of time, like the fish of the Burgess Shale.  Perhaps the next life form won't even be interested in what we did.  But I want to leave them a picture.

Laurie (text) and Blair (painting) PESSEMIER
"Circus Baraque" oil on linen 16 x 22 inches