10 of Swords

Artist: Tessa Schoenecker 

The Ten of Swords draws the curtain back on a brutal scene. A figure is before us, lethally impaled, but not dead. The Ten asks us to consider this portrayal of violence, and our own positions as spectators. What has happened? Is this a vision of unimaginable pain and violence, someone so hated or so maligned as to be stabbed ten times over? Or is this a scene of melodrama, and exaggeration? Do we watch the brutality as voyeurs, standing by as someone is being tortured? Or, is our participation necessary, as the figure in the card performs for our view? The Ten of Swords challenges us to consider what we see, but also places us as participants in brutality. Standing in the O’Shaughnessy’s Frey Theater, we are asked whether we buy into the show. Our answers both determine the scene, and in what role we are cast.