AT PLAY: Four annual exhibitions at South Hill Park exploring ideas about play

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At Play 1 (in 2009) and At Play 2 (in 2010), curated by Cally Trench and Outi Remes, explored ideas about play: making magic and being transformed, passing the time, messing about and making a mess, being yourself and pretending to be someone else, having secrets, making dens, belonging to gangs, creating rules and rituals, taking dares and chances, making and exploring small worlds.

View of At Play 1

View of At Play 1 at South Hill Park, with Territory by Cally Trench,
Skipping Rope by Pernille Holm-Mercer,
Taking a Position by Judy Goldhill and Sophie Loss,
and Build Your Own Hedge Maze by Samantha Mogelonsky

View of At Play 1

View of At Play 1 at South Hill Park,
with Sitting Slip performed by Philip Lee, and
My Brother Breathes for Me by Rosie Gibson


At Play 1 took place at South Hill Park, Bracknell from 18 April to 21 June 2009.

The artists in At Play 1 were Marco Cali, Marcin Gajewski, Rosie Gibson, Judy Goldhill and Sophie Loss, Susan Eyre, Cathy Hart and Esther Jervis, Aaron Head, Pernille Holm-Mercer, Ingrid Jensen, Philip Lee, Siobhan McAuley, Samantha Mogelonsky, Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich, Kay Sentance, Liz Whiteman Smith, John Tenniel, and Cally Trench.

The exhibition re-created in both adults and children a sense of what it is like to be a child at play. A highly interactive exhibition, it encouraged viewers to gaze, remember, touch, explore, trust, think, laugh, peer, concentrate, join in, bend down, take a chance .. and play.

For reviews of At Play 1 on a-n Interface, see:

Review by Tracey Jerome

Review by Areej Abdi

Review by April Bateman


For a short film about At Play 1, see:

youtube film by Arnaud Moinet



View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park, with 1 x Grey by Helen Edling,
Haunted Castle by David Hockney, Sandcastles II by Kay Sentance,
Switch by Paul Greco, Tweet by Tineke Bruijnzeels,
Untitled by Amy Galloway,
and This is MY Chair 2 by Francesca Galeazzi

View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park,
with This is MY Chair 2 by Francesca Galeazzi,
Danger Money by Cally Trench,
and Between You, Me and the Gatepost by Linda Francis

At Play 2 took place at South Hill Park, Bracknell from 17 April to 20 June 2010.

The artists in At Play 2 were Mary Anderson, Emily Bailey, Jackie Berridge, Tineke Bruijnzeels, Stephen Conning, Sergio Cruz, Alex Dewart, Caitriona Dunnett, Helen Edling, Helen Flanaghan, Linda Francis, Freya Gabie, Francesca Galeazzi, Amy Galloway, Judy Goldhill, Paul Greco, Lesley Halliwell, David Hockney, Clare Johnson, Daniel Lehan, Katy Merrington, Arnaud Moinet, Elizabeth Murton, Nicola Pomery, Joanna Salter, Kay Sentance, Cally Trench, Nick Trench, Imogen Welch, and Mary Yacoob, with work at the opening reception by Sean Caves, Felicity Clarke, James R Ford, and Clara García Fraile, and a performance residency by Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie.

For reviews of At Play 2 on a-n Interface, see:

Review by Jacqueline Berridge

Review by j ogden


For a short film about At Play 2, see:

youtube film by Arnaud Moinet



View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park, with The Park by Alex Dewart,
Danger Money by Cally Trench,
and Reconstuction of an Endless Column by Arnaud Moinet



View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park,
with Infinity Pools by Judy Goldhill




View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park, with Drape and Spill by Freya Gabie




View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park, opening reception




View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park,
with Kick My Sculpture by Sean Caves



View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park,
with Can by Elizabeth Murton,
and Sins of the Lion and Art Deco Railings by Mary Yacoob


View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park,
with Untitled by Amy Galloway



View of At Play 2

View of At Play 2 at South Hill Park,
with DO THIS! by Daniel Lehan



At Play 3 will take place at South Hill Park from 17th April to 19th June 2011.

Children use play to make sense of the world; adults mainly use play to escape from it. Both have pleasure ... but play can also have an obsessive, addictive, aggressive or divisive side. At Play 3 will explore ideas about making sense of the world and escaping from it, and both the pleasurable and the more sinister aspects of play.

At Play 4 will take place at South Hill Park in April–June 2012.

Play can be free and spontaneous, or it can be bound by rules and conventions – as with board games and sport . At Play 4 will explore ideas about rules, or the lack of them, in play, and the spirit of the Olympics.

If you are an artist and would like to make a proposal for At Play 3 or At Play 4, click here for a link to South Hill Park, and follow the Call for Artists link.

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