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"…play...is a revolutionary activity." |
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Meet Lia Sutton THE ARTIST'S STATEMENT The primary subject of my artistic practice has been Adventure Playgrounds. Adventure playgrounds are community-based spaces where children literally create their own environment using hammers, saws, wood and other loose materials. I have spent the past 6 years exploring this photographic inquiry by both engaging artistically as a photographer and working directly with children as a playworker.
I first encountered the source of inspiration that would become a
major focus of my work when I spent a semester studying art in the
Netherlands at the Gerrit Rieveld Academie. During that time, I
spent six months photographing an Adventure Playground outside of
Amsterdam. Kinderparadijs truly was a children's paradise in which
they had created giant wooden structures, dikes, and a wooden ship
two stories high. I knew that this place, both idyllic and
cluttered, would be the perfect site to begin to explore this
photographic inquiry. I sought to capture a particular dynamic
engagement with life that I had not seen elsewhere. Children could
come as go as they pleased. Adults, called playworkers, were there
as allies to the children, and the children had the resources and
space to build their own world. The uniqueness of this place, which
allowed its occupants to behave so differently, captivated my eye in
a way that previous subjects I had photographed had failed to do.
MORE ABOUT PLAY / GROUND http://www.rietveldacademie.nl/en/fine-arts http://adventureplaygrounds.hampshire.edu |
THE PICTURISH GALLERY PRESENTS PLAY / GROUND Exploring the Power of Unstructured Outdoor Play January 19 to February 26, 2012 Reception Saturday January 28th 5 to 7 pm PICTURISH GALLERY 2235 Fifth Street, Berkeley, California map and directions About LIA SUTTON
About her work with children she says: "For my
direct artistic practice, I teach after school
carpentry classes, giving children their first
introduction to sculpture, three dimensional design,
and applied mathematics. When I build forts with
them, the art is a vehicle for their own adventures.
Building a fort, swing, or boat with young people is
part site-specific sculpture, part social practice.
Children create the space in which they play and
then get to experience that space. This act of
co-creation transforms a child's reality.. "
Contact:
adventure.playgrounds@gmail.com |
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Through photography, I use images of children to explore the idea of
play. These are not dramatized or seductive images; instead, they
present play and the joy of discovery as basic human needs. Using
the camera, I capture the authenticity of these children's
experiences. The children in my photographs have been captured in
the act of creation. They are powerful subjects who are literally
building their own environment. It is a radical idea to trust
children enough to follow their minds, wherever they may lead. 
