Peabody Essex Museum (PEM): a major exhibition to celebrate play in contemporary art & culture

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) debuted the first major thematic exhibition celebrating the role of play in contemporary art and culture. Nearly 40 works by 17 leading and emerging artists reveal how behaviors essential to the creative process — risk-taking, exploration, questioning and curiosity — are all encouraged by the act of play. Through large scale installations, video, sculpture, photographs and tactile experiences, PlayTime explores how play catalyzes creative expression, enchants the ordinary and helps us understand ourselves in new ways. PlayTime will be on view at PEM through May 6, 2018.

“Play is no longer on the margins,” says Trevor Smith, exhibition curator and PEM’s Curator of the Present Tense. “Since the early 1990s we’ve seen play increasingly manifest itself across divergent streams of contemporary art and engage a wide range of social, technological, economic and psychological concerns.” Exploring a broad emotional range and engaging a diverse array of creative perspectives, PlayTime is presented as part of PEM’s Present Tense Initiative which seeks to be reflexive and responsive to the pressing issues of our contemporary reality. “Play is a catalyst for creativity, where we make up the rules and learn how to negotiate and resolve conflict,” continues Smith. “Play helps us possess a power for change. It’s fundamentally about human empowerment.”

Artists at PLAY, Visitors at PLAY

PlayTime features three tactile interactive works, including an immersive balloon room installation by Turner Prize winner Martin Creed and participatory One Minute Sculptures by internationally renowned artist Erwin Wurm which invite visitors to become part of the exhibition by striking and holding unexpected poses with everyday objects. Leading contemporary artists from around the globe are exhibited alongside several younger, emerging artists who make their New England debut with this exhibition. PlayTime artists include: Cory Arcangel, Mark Bradford, Nick Cave, Martin Creed, Lara Favaretto, Cao Fei, Brian Jungen, Teppei Kaneuji, Paul McCarthy, Rivane Neuenschwander, Pedro Reyes, Robin Rhode, Roman Signer, Gwen Smith, Angela Washko, Agustina Woodgate, and Erwin Wurm.

Some of the featured artists embrace playful behaviors in order to re-enchant the ordinary and to encourage fresh dialogue through play. Artist Lara Favaretto’s sculpture Simple Couples, installed in PEM’s historic East India Marine Hall, features seven pairs of spinning car wash brushes of different sizes and colors, which move in a mesmerizing choreography of color and light. Elsewhere, Pedro Reyes’ Disarm Mechanized ll transforms 6,700 guns confiscated by the Mexican government into an array of working musical instruments that push these objects beyond their originally intended purpose.

The world of video gaming, which currently generates more revenue each year than the music or movie industries, offers rich material and subject matter for artists to tackle in provocative ways. Angela Washko’s work, Performing in Public: Ephemeral Actions in World of Warcraft, delves into World of Warcraft — the online role-playing game with more than 10 million users — to conduct absurdist performances and engage other players in discussions of gender, sexism and harassment. Her work inside World of Warcraft began in 2012, a couple of years before #gamergate made us all aware of the vicious harassment and threats to which women and gender non-conforming gamers are commonly subjected. By documenting her interactions on the platform Washko doesn’t critique the game itself, but rather gets inside the game to facilitate a dialog about the rules by which we are all agreeing to play.

Play involves a level of vulnerability and letting go of preconceived notions or boundaries, allowing an openness to new possibilities, enjoyments, failures and risks. In addition to being fundamental to our development, thanks to our digital devices, the barriers between work and play have eroded, influencing where and when and how we play. “Play is no longer just a reward for hard work,” says Smith. “It is absolutely central to how we learn how to be human.”

Smith hopes that an exhibition dedicated to play can upend traditional museum visitor behavior. “My hope is that PlayTime demonstrates that museums can be playful, lively, noisy, joyous spaces. We’re providing people with opportunities to engage with the power of creativity and to understand how it might work in their own life.”

About the Peabody Essex Museum

Over the last 20 years, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has distinguished itself as one of the fastest-growing art museums in North America. Founded in 1799, it is also the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. At its heart is a mission to enrich and transform people's lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes and knowledge of themselves and the wider world. PEM celebrates outstanding artistic and cultural creativity through exhibitions, programming and special events that emphasize cross-cultural connections, integrate past and present and underscore the vital importance of creative expression. The museum's collection is among the finest of its kind boasting superlative works from around the globe and across time -- including American art and architecture, Asian export art, photography, maritime art and history, Native American, Oceanic and African art. PEM's campus affords a varied and unique visitor experience with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities and performance spaces. Twenty-four noted historic structures grace PEM’s campus, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese house that is the only such example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States, and the Phillips Library, which holds one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts. HOURS: Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am-5 pm. Closed Mondays (except holidays), Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. ADMISSION: Adults $20; seniors $17; students $12. Additional admission to Yin Yu Tang: $5. Members, youth 16 and under and residents of Salem enjoy free general admission and free admission to Yin Yu Tang. INFO: Call 866‐745‐1876 or visit pem.org

PlayTime is on view February 10 through May 6, 2018

PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

East India Square, Salem, Massachusetts, United States

https://www.pem.org/