Brianne Siu finds it a bit odd how viewers react to her ceramics exhibition — especially adults.
In the gallery, they put their hands in their pockets for fear of breaking any objects in the show.
But the North Burnaby artist wants the opposite.
In fact, the title of her display states that.
Permission to Play, which opened last week at PoMoArts in Port Moody, gives Siu’s audience the chance to not only touch her artistic creations, but to pick them up, make a sound and experiment.
“I feel like the exhibit is almost like a behavioural test,” she told the Tri-City News yesterday, March 18.
“It’s kind of interesting to see how people interact with the works.”
A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design who was recently hired by the City of Burnaby’s Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Siu created Permission to Play during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of her year-long artist residency with MedAlta in Medicine Hat, Alta.
Her PoMoArts show in the Ann Kitching Gallery is somewhat smaller than the original display, with eight game pieces; it also has a different wall and floor layout for the playful elements.
Last year, she displayed parts of her exhibit at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ont. and she hopes to have it in other venues across Canada.
Permission to Play is a colourful display “that’s meant to be touched,” Siu said, to evoke childhood memories of being carefree.
Her pieces are also designed to provide an ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) — that is, provide a tingling sensation in the body with sound.
And if they break? Then so be it, she said.
“Things are meant to break and rules are meant to be broken,” Siu said, adding, “I encourage everyone to play more and jump over their boundaries. It’s refreshing to see people break out their inner child and have fun because we don’t allow ourselves to do that.”
Permission to Play is up at PoMoArts (2425 St. Johns St., Port Moody) until May 6. The facility is open weekdays from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
