Concrete Playground

Michael Stevenson’s Introduccion a la Teoria de la Probilidad opens up an intriguing world of political power play.

Amid the white shores of Contadora, a Pacific island off Panama, we meet an improbable list of leading characters: The last Shah of Iran, General Omar Torrijos, Manual Antonio Noriega and Patty Hearst. In the wings are Carter, Regan and Napoleon.

Stevenson used the diaries of José Jesús Martinez, a close friend and aid of Torrigos, as a basis for the exhibition, and you’ll understand why as the story unfolds. Martinez, a professor of philosophy and mathematics, is humane, poignant and delicate as he ponders the individual and the universal.

Take the time to watch the video work in which the tale of chance and tactics is told; it’s the centrepiece of the show. A series of photographs accompany and the ground floor gallery space holds a display of works from Stevenson’s earlier exhibitions.


Image: Michael Stevenson, 1974, 2002, black and white photographic enlargement, 19.5 x 40.8 cm