For more than six years, Courtney McClellan has studied the relationship between performance and the law. Her inquiry centers on the legal simulations and professional practices used to educate future attorneys. During trial simulation, students may play the role of lawyer, witness, or judge in the courtroom. Their actions are often theatrical and their assertions are often speculative.
Simulations is an ongoing photo series comprised of images of practice courtrooms at law schools across the American South. The series depicts spaces that simultaneously function as courtroom, classroom, and theater. These sites occasionally host the actual adjudication of law, for example a state appellate case, and thus blur the boundaries between real and staged experience.
To date, McClellan has documented approximately 15 of more than 50 courtrooms in the South. With the support of Idea Capital, she will continue this expansive project.
