Curatorial Projects > Identity Play

SPACE gallery

In play, we become active makers in our own realities. We explore speculative narratives and allow memory, circumstance, and desire to shape our reasoning. Play allows us to swim boldly in uncertain waters rather than search for the most reliable route to shore.

While on the surface play may appear frivolous, it is essential to our cognitive and social development. By indulging in hypothetical realities, we allow ourselves to engage with ideas that others might dismiss as impractical, incongruous, or even unreasonable. Playing teaches us to search for new associations and to cultivate latent potentialities. By re-framing the unprecedented as possible, we learn to better navigate the uncertain complexities of both others and ourselves.

The artists in this exhibition use play to discover, shift, reveal, and redefine the parameters of their identities, addressing the liminal space between their innermost worlds and external selves. They ask us to consider alternative perspectives, to re-evaluate histories, and to accept their ability to reposition a personal narrative.

Artists: Scott Andrew, Atom Atkinson, Patty Carroll, Zoë Charlton, Rick Delaney, John Peña, Bibiana Suárez, Imin Yeh