{"id":892,"date":"2025-03-25T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/?p=892"},"modified":"2025-09-24T12:41:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:41:35","slug":"weird-hope-engines-bonnington-gallery-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/?p=892","title":{"rendered":"Weird Hope Engines, Bonnington Gallery, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This was a particular exhibition experience because I had
\nsome of my own work on display and for sale during the associated zine fair,
\nThe Critical Hits Zine Fair. <\/p>\n

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I was struck, upon entering the space, by how much the
\ngallery had been completely adapted from the last time I saw it for the working-class
\nphotography exhibition in late 2024. It succinctly illustrated the power of
\ncreative curatorship and how you can transform a space to compliment and
\namplify the works it is displaying at any given time.<\/p>\n

The Weird Hope Engines exhibition embraced the culture of
\ntabletop roleplaying games to explore play as a site of projection, simulation,
\ncommunal mythmaking, distorted temporality, and alternate possibility.  The first exhibition of its kind, it
\nhighlighted the practices of innovative designers, artists, and writers in the
\nfield of independent game design, and brings their work into dialogue with
\nfellow-travellers in the field of critical art practice. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There were multiple
\ninteractive spaces throughout the gallery, all with different opportunities to
\nplay and create. This gave the exhibition multi generational appeal. It also went
\nsome way to dismantling the wall between art and viewer usually felt so heavily
\nin gallery space. This said, one of the volunteers there did comment that folks
\nstill seemed reluctant to move the beanbags placed around the space. Pushing this
\nreally appeals to me and I will look to how I can expand on audience participation
\nin my installation work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Maybe it was coloured by the success of my work selling at
\nthe zine fair, but I really enjoyed this exhibition. It felt intimate, thoughtful
\nand playful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This was a particular exhibition experience because I had some of my own work on display and for sale during the associated zine fair, The Critical Hits Zine Fair. I was struck, upon entering the space, by how much the gallery had been completely adapted from the last time I saw it for the working-class […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":894,"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions\/894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethanhemus.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}