Punctuated Into An Exclamation Mark A review of Michelle Le Dain, PLAY, at Factory 49 Play becomes joy, joy becomes work, work becomes play. Johannes Itten
Michelle Le Dain, Upside down inside out, 2016 (detail) Image: Annelies Jahn
To play is to enter a realm of wonder and spontaneous activity, of open-ended thinking, of chance and of discovery. It is to question, to turn upside-down, to surprise – and it is uninhibitedly joyous. Yet to play is also to engage with the objects in play, to work within a structure and to bounce against the rules - as in playing a game or improvising musically. For visual artist Michelle Le Dain to play as an artist is a mode of practice by which her installations enter, engage with and yes, absolutely have fun with architectonic space. For some time Le Dain has been working with and developing a signature vocabulary of elemental geometric forms, bright colours, taped lines and placement of other assemblages. These arise out of her research interest in theories of play (as advanced by Froebel and the kindergarten movement) and their considerable influence on the genesis of abstract art in the early 20th century. When these formal elements enter a space as raw materials for installation, they seem to skip along the floor, walls, ceiling, seeking out hidden nooks and cavorting with expected notions of form and function. Playfully probing, discovering and exclaiming, Play raises some very interesting questions about our expectations and perceptions of built spaces, and in particular white spaces for the display of art.