Who says galleries can’t be fun? Three exhibitions in London, Paris and New York explore the idea of play – each taking a different approach to the subject.

Mysterious design collective Field Experiments presented Grounds for Play at Moeity, a gallery in Brooklyn. Based on the concept of ‘play as work’, the show was the result of five years of research into ‘the materials, shapes and structures that signify play’, which included photographs of New York City playgrounds shot over the course of five years. The objects on display were taken out of context and customized to see whether adults would respond to them with the same level of excitement that playground equipment rouses in kids.

On the other side of the pond in Paris, Galerie Kreo hosted Jaime Hayon’s Game On furniture collection. Favouring a more literal approach, the Spanish designer integrated play-related forms directly into his new pieces: a golf ball morphs into a side table made of solid white marble, a ping-pong table pretends to be a dining table, and markings from various sports pitches adorn brass lamp bases. There’s even a bed mounted on a bobsleigh.

At London’s Southbank Centre, artist Carsten Höller raised the stakes even further. In Carsten Höller: Decision, the largest retrospective of his work ever mounted in the UK, visitors made their way through a wonderland of imagination, getting to grips with a psychedelic mushroom mobile or taking a ride in a flying machine before leaving the exhibition via one of two 15-m-tall spiral slides snaking down the Hayward Gallery’s exterior wall.

field-experiments.com
carstenholler.southbankcentre.co.uk
hayonstudio.com

This article debuted in Frame #106 alongside a host of inspirational interviews and projects. Find your copy in the online Frame store.