Sometimes play is about following rules. Sometimes it's about bending or breaking them. In art there are conventions which often seem like rules, because they've been followed for so long. Using perspective and framed, rectangular pictures are both conventions. So is the opening night ritual of a new exhibition. When an artist or group breaks with convention they may be playing with different ideas, expressing a view not seen before, or deliberately trying to provoke, shock or create change. The 'Avant Garde' is the term often used to refer to art which breaks the mould.
One key way visual art this century has differed from previous times is in the various forms it now takes, beyond the traditional media of paint, print, bronze, marble etc. Art can be a performance, that is an event or act as spectacle or entertainment. Within this form of play, various devices such as repetition, exaggeration, mimicry, ritual and parody might be used to explore and express meanings.
Above all, performance is public, that is it plays to or assumes there will be an audience, even if they are only passing by. The context of the performance, that is where, when, how, to whom and by whom it is performed are, to a large extent, the meaning of the piece. The artist supplies intentions, the place creates a frame and the audience brings expectation and interpretation. As you can imagine, meanings are not fixed but will shift as the place and the audience changes. This is true of all site specific art.
Coco Fusco is an artist and writer who has made performances, on her own and in collaboration, about representations of race and gender in relation to the 'primitive' and the 'exotic'. They playfully exploit people's expectations revealing the assumptions, beliefs and power structures on which our knowledge of past and present is based.
There is a strand within contemporary art, mirrored in popular culture, which is confessional in nature. The thrill or guilt produced by transgression is simultaneously increased and absolved when it is made public. And as viewers or readers we share in these feelings getting voyeuristic pleasure.
These confessional performances are partly about the audience believing them - confessing or revealing secrets is no fun if you have nothing to lose. This element of risk is present in all areas of play as well as in art since to risk or dare the most, is also seen to be the most rewarding.
By assuming another identity, using a mask or disguise we can reveal things about ourselves and show other sides to our character. We can also explore the many identities which we choose to project, or which are projected onto us, or which in many cases are discouraged or denied. In the 'chatrooms' of the Internet we are invisible and potentially free to role-play, to be any age, ethnicity or gender we choose. But in many ways cyberspace is just an extension of the societies we live in, so don't be surprised if people still try to label or locate you.
Gillian Wearing uses photogaphy and video, to deconstruct various documentary conventions, investigating the narratives, dramas and tensions of everyday life. Other artists whose work you could explore in relation to playing up are:
