GAME/CULTURE

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Mallory Tolcher, "Lace Net," 2020

from the series Nothing But Net, lace, basketball hoop.

GAME/CULTURE: Mallory Tolcher, Lucas Morneau, Craig Willms, Nathalie Quagliotto

This exhibition explores the ways that sports and games have fundamentally shaped societal expectations of gender, sexuality, race, and ability. Artworks by four contemporary artists are displayed alongside photographs and objects from The Reach’s historical collections to examine how sports and games sanction certain kinds of behaviors and bodies, and in doing so condition our understanding of ourselves in relation to others.

Much of our social conditioning has encouraged the idea that sports and art are somehow worlds apart, however the similarities between these pursuits are numerous and profound. One need look no further than frequent controversies surrounding public art or the Olympics to understand that the implications of both sports and art are deeply symbolic. Both require rigorous practice, training, hard work, and drive in environments that are often very competitive. Perhaps most critically, the worlds of art and sports are both known to privilege and reward certain kinds of bodies, to the exclusion of others.

Guelph-based artist Mallory Tolcher’s Nothing But Net celebrates the beauty of basketball in a series of hand-crafted basketball nets made of unusual materials such as lace, crystals, and silk flowers, that simultaneously challenge stereotypes of masculinity and aggression within professional sports.

New Brunswick-based Lucas Morneau’s Queer Newfoundland Hockey League asks similar questions of professional hockey. The artist uses pejoratives that have been leveled against the LGBTQIA+ community in the names of the 14 teams in his fictional hockey league, reclaiming these terms both on and off the ice. Shown alongside a series of camp-inspired hockey cards and crocheted goalie masks, Morneau’s work challenges the perceived hegemonic masculinity of the sport. Two performance based works by Kamloops artist Craig Willms explore quirky, unorthodox methods in sports and games that make elite skills more accessible for the average person. Sissy Shot encourages visitors to attempt to make a basketball free throw by tossing the ball underhand, a technique proven to be more accurate than the overhand standard, but which has failed to gain popularity in the NBA. In Kid’s Game, meanwhile, Willms sets up a standard Wiffle Ball® target at which viewers may take aim. Wiffle Ball has long been a popular kids game that adapts baseball to the back yard, yet has also recently become a highly competitive sport for adult leagues.

Finally, Nathalie Quagliotto’s participatory installation Doubled Persistence invites two people to step up onto the “green” with a putter and ball, and to simultaneously aim for the same target. By reconfiguring the game’s structure to render the competition between players both explicit and entertainingly ridiculous, Quagliotto changes both the goals of the game and our reasons for engaging in the first place. In Maturity Turn a simple game of tic-tac-toe becomes a much more intimate experience by doubling and fusing two tic-tac-toe panels together. XOXO is understood as symbol for love and sex, rather than XOX, which is a children’s game.

With humour and an invitation to participate, the exhibition encourages visitors to make connections between their own experiences and identities, and the world of game/culture.

This exhibition is made possible through generous support from Presenting Sponsor Victory Creative Group/SLAM® Canada.