Play Passages
2017-2018
Play Passages is an interactive site-specific multi-media installation that interrogates the changing boundaries of childhood play, freedom and risk. It debuted at Trinity-Bellwoods Park in Toronto on June 25, 2018.
As my kids grew into school age, I became increasingly frustrated by how much children’s play had been curtailed since I was young. For a variety of reasons, mostly fear, the current North American culture doesn’t allow most kids the freedom, risk taking, and unsupervised play that many of us had growing up.
I wanted to challenge the assumption that kids free play isn’t that important, and start some new conversations. I wondered what would happen if I started asking adults to remember their play—what stories would come up? And if I asked them to play again themselves to share it, and take a small artistic risk, what would that process feel like? What does it mean for us to play across our lifetimes and what is lost when we don’t?
I set up shop at adventure playgrounds and other events in Toronto and New York City in the summer of 2017, and asked parents to share their most vivid outdoor childhood play memory. After writing their story on a postcard, I asked them to close their eyes and draw a map of its location. (Drawing blind encouraged the adults to let go and not judge themselves, which is not an easy task). Then, eyes opened, they painted their map, and added their story to the project.
I chose 16 of the stories, and then re-photographed their locations on Google Earth with a macro lens, evoking the watercolour map as well as the original memory.
In the final installation, dozens of kids ages 6 and up created a pop-up playground with large 5’x10’ fabric images of the memories, combined with rope, sticks and other simple building materials. Simultaneously, anyone could watch the installation come to life from outside the space while listening to immersive audio recordings of the stories, view and read the original collected stories, and contribute their own.
