A Playground for All and Body as Vessel, a dual exhibition by Yiran Zhu, combine themes of childlike wonder with a personal exploration of memory and identity in the human body. In addition to challenging traditional patriarchal art canons, Zhu creates spaces where critical reflection and emotion can be expressed through play and embodiment.
Her curatorial approach challenges societal norms that undervalue play and minimize the body’s complexity, instead arguing that both play and complexity help us understand who we are and the world around us.
A Playground for All: Reclaiming Play as Essential
The importance of play—an activity society often teaches us to give up as we grow older—is examined in A Playground for All by Zhu. Through this exhibition, the gallery is transformed into a reflective space where play is reimagined as a path to completeness rather than a regression, based on the notion that play is integral to childhood learning. Zhu’s emphasis on the inner child taps into a universal experience, showing that reconnecting with play can be a powerful way to progress toward wholeness.
The works of Aimilios Metaxas, particularly Sea Urchins and The toys that made us, stand out as thoughtful reflections on the creative child residing in every adult. Metaxas positions play not as a childish act but as a form of creativity, a path to rediscover joy and imagination. His work reframes the inner child as a progressive force that encourages adults to embrace creativity and spontaneity in their everyday lives. This shift challenges societal expectations, reminding us that play has the potential to enhance adult life, fostering creativity, connection, and even healing.
Yuying Song’s installation, inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s idea of eucatastrophe, adds a poetic dimension to the exhibition. Within moments of shared play, her work explores the unpredictable nature of life, the fleeting nature of joy, and the presence of doom. By incorporating both individual and collective experiences into Song’s installation, she emphasizes the transient and simultaneous nature of happiness, suggesting that play is more than just an escape, but a profound engagement with life’s complexities.
Similarly, Marisa Polin’s ephemeral sculpture crafted from cardboard and felt reflects the importance of play in shaping how we create and envision the world. Drawing on childhood memories, Polin’s work is not only a reconstruction of the past but a meditation on the act of building and imagining. It suggests that even as adults, we can reclaim the innocence and creativity of childhood, re-envisioning our surroundings with renewed perspective.
The fairytale-like elements in Wuda’s installation The Wondering DREAM, together with Elflock’s whimsical paintings, offer a dreamlike contrast to other works in the exhibition, reinforcing the idea that play is also about imagination and infinite possibility. Both pieces emphasize Zhu’s curatorial intent: play is a way to envision new futures, both personally and collectively.
Body as Vessel: The Body as an Archive
In Body as Vessel, Zhu and her co-curator Yue shift focus from the whimsy of childhood to the complexities of the human body as a repository of identity and memory. Here, the body is explored as a physical site that holds personal and collective histories. Using feminist curatorial methodologies, the exhibition repositions the body as not just a biological entity but a vessel for emotional and cultural experience.
Among the most moving pieces in this exhibition is Nayeon Han’s textiles, which explore miscarriage’s emotional and physical reality. Leaving your trace on the outside world transforms Han’s baby blanket into a powerful symbol of healing and mourning in her work. The dyed and stitched blanket, never to be used for its original purpose, carries the emotional weight of loss, symbolizing the profound connection between mother and child, both physically and spiritually. Her second work, Sprouting, visualizes her belief that her miscarried child will be reborn in a better place, offering a narrative of hope and transformation in the face of grief.
Max Lee’s photographs provide a stark contrast by exploring the queer body as both a material existence and a site of vulnerability. His work interrogates how the body functions as a shield and a point of exposure, particularly within the context of queer identity. Through a focus on movement and time, Lee’s photographs encourage viewers to reflect on the body’s temporality and its role in shaping identity, safety, and belonging.
The dialogue further deepens through Wenyi Qian’s yoga-inspired paintings and Susanne Baumann’s exploration of absence. Qian’s work, rooted in the practice of yoga, becomes a metaphor for the flexibility and resilience of the female body. She shows in her paintings the ongoing negotiation women have with their bodies, highlighting their strength and adaptability. Baumann, on the other hand, deals with the absence of the body as it relates to mental health and personal loss. Informed by her father’s battle with Alzheimer’s, Baumann’s work captures the emotional toll of watching a loved one fade, transforming the body into a site of memory and absence.
In conclusion: Redefining Embodiment and Play
Yiran Zhu masterfully brings together the joy of play and the complexity of the human body through her two exhibitions, A Playground for All and Body as Vessel. By drawing on feminist methodologies, Zhu challenges the patriarchal art canon, centering voices and experiences that are often marginalized or overlooked. Through play and embodiment, Zhu offers new insights into these essential human experiences, showing that art can serve as both a tool for seeing the world and a medium for feeling, healing, and imagining new futures.