Games People Play: Curated Visual Arts Exhibition and the Pride in Art Community Show

‘Maturity means to have rediscovered the seriousness one had as a child at play.’ -Friedrich Nietzsche

For obvious reasons, I have a big stake in promoting GLBT (queer) issues, and one of the festivals I look forward the most is the Queer Arts Festival (having written about it last year). Thus it is my pleasure to invite you to the Opening Night for 2 Visual Arts Shows on July 26th at 7pm. FREE admission.

Games People Play: Curated Visual Arts Exhibition opens on July 26th at 7 pm and is on exhibit everyday until August 13th at 11 pm at the Roundhouse Exhibition Hall (181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC, Canada), 11 am-10 pm weekdays and 11 am-4:30 weekends

To celebrate the North America Outgames in Vancouver this summer, the Queer Arts Festival has chosen Games People Play as its theme for 2011. And I really love their rationale behind it:

Queer cultures often emphasize elements of game-play: from camp to butch/femme to strictures of “straight looking/straight acting”, we play around with identity and its shadows of artifice, passing and trespassing. The curators are encouraging artists to queer the idea of games and play: board games, bored games, war games, mind games, drinking games, parlor games, gender games, games theory, game shows, word play, gun play, foreplay, BDSM play, playing the fool, playing by ear, playing along, playing around, playing for the team, playback, playmates, team sports, blood sport, water sports… With this exuberance of possibilities we will build a show of divergent investigations; a game for viewers to trace commonalities and conflicts along the through-line of gaming.