PHOTO CREDITS - ALBERT TING
Exhibition Description:
In our complex world, how can one distill the meaning of play? How do we conceptualize the relationship between experimentation and resistance? What is the process for allowing one’s curiosity to emerge so that cognitive liberation is possible? Intrinsic Tool serves as an incubator to address these existential puzzles. Imagined as an interactive experience, the exhibition is not only a collection of artworks but also an invitation to indulge in the eccentric and a reminder to break away from the simulation of everyday life.
Amidst the adversity inherent to being human, Intrinsic Tool posits that innate remedies are available to all of us, independent of identity or circumstance. With this underlying posture as its heartbeat, the exhibition attempts to demonstrate that play is an instrument for personal and collective liberation. From dynamic paintings that defy the traditional bounds of canvas to interactive cross-cultural visual tools and otherworldly labyrinth sculptures that push one’s imagination, the featured works further the viewer’s capacity for experiencing and feeling in subtly radical ways.
Curated by D.C. native artist Carter Wynne, this space brings together six creators from varied backgrounds exploring play within their respective practices and ethos. The pieces are meant to be seen, touched, and embodied. They possess an insurgent quality. The artists’ ability to think beyond the limitations of the oppressive forces that govern our society is evidenced through intuitive brushstrokes, saturated world-building, satirical critique, imaginative homage, and investigative landscapes. The exhibition encourages participants to consider any form of play as a political act, a transgressive occurrence. A new visual language is encoded, the senses are disrupted, and our primordial need for experimentation is satiated.