Where we will play, what we will play, and who we will play with, my time, as a parent, is organized around playing. My time in the studio is organized around getting things done. The curators and editors in this post focus their work on play.
Play is often (directly or indirectly) positioned opposite work, ambition, and depth. I know people who are good at making hard work fun, but I’m more familiar with what it feels like when you forget to breathe in pursuit of your goals. I also know art that is so boring that you feel guilty for not appreciating it, and other artworks that remind you to laugh while you cry.
This round up is a simple salute to the curators and editors who want to know more about what play means in art, politics, religion, or education as I continue to figure out what it means in my studio.
Push Play / Exhibition
“‘No vital periods ever began from a theory. What’s first is a game, a struggle, a journey.’ – Guy Debord. Seeking the initial moment described by Debord, Push Play explores the work of artists who borrow from play and games to reveal social, philosophical, and cultural issues.” – Free Play, curated by Melissa E. Feldman for ICI (currently touring)
Playtime / Exhibition
“As we grow up we tend to trivialize play and relegate it to childhood, but it’s an important element of life that we wanted to explore in this exhibition,” said Halona Norton-Westbrook, the Museum’s Mellon fellow and associate curator of contemporary art. “This show is not only about play in the traditional sense, but also the idea of being in the moment, of inspiring wonder, of invoking your natural curiosity.” –Toledo Museum of Art, 2015
Faesthetic: Play time / ArtZine
128 pages, 45 artists on “Play Time,” the catalog for the exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art
In Focus: Play / Exhibition
“The introduction of photography in 1839 coincided with major social and economic changes spurred by the Industrial Revolution and a burgeoning culture of leisure.” – In Focus: Play at the Getty Center
Toys Redux / Exhibition
“The group exhibition brings together artists who make creative use of formats and imagery from popular culture usually addressed to children or teenagers.” – Toys Redux at MigrosMuseum, 2015
Bedford Gallery / Year of Art + Play
The Bedford Gallery has dedicated a year of art programming to “Art + Play.” The recent and upcoming shows include themes like inflatables, superheros, Legos, and baseball.
Playground / Art Festival
“Since 2007 Playground has been a meeting point for performing arts and visual arts. The black box of theatre and the white cube of an exhibition inspire many artists working in the captivating zone between disciplines.” – Playground 2015 Next festival is November 2016 in Leuven, Belgium
PlayTime / Art Festival
“Play is a thing by itself. The play-concept as such is of a higher order than is seriousness. For seriousness seeks to exclude play, whereas play can very well include seriousness. […] Play may rise to heights of beauty and sublimity that leave seriousness far beneath.” –Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens (1938)
“Appropriating the title of Jacques Tati’s masterpiece, the fourth edition of Les Ateliers de Rennes – biennale d’art contemporain takes a Hulotesque stroll through the field of contemporary artistic practice. Exploring notions of work, play, idleness and the time we devote to each…” (source) – PlayTime, Les Ateliers de Rennes
It’s Play Time / Journal
“In the globalized and highly professionalized art world the distinction between work and play is increasingly unclear. For artists, the distinction between work and play has always been blurry. This was not an issue until we all experienced that the art world is a perfect sort of R&D department for capitalism, and we the artists are the perfect work force for economic exploitation. What can we do about it?” – It’s play time by Fucking Good Art
Banksy / Street Art in Gaza
“Play is Freedom” by Banksy
Playground / Artist Book
“When I conceived this series of pictures, I was thinking about my time at school. I realized that most of my memories were from the playground…Although the schools I photographed were very diverse, I was struck by the similarities between children’s behavior and the games they played.” -James Mollison
Children’s Games by Francis Alys / Series of Video Works
Children’s Game 15 / Espejos by Francis Alys, from 2013
