Curators / Laurie Cinotto, Sean Miller and Demi Raven

Play/Things

Ryan Berg, Jay Bryant, Stephanie Carlson, Laurie Cinotto, Leslie Clague, Mandy Greer, Glen D. Herlihy, Joel Lee, Monika Lidman, Karen Liebowitz, Margaret Meehan, Sean Miller, Leslie Morgan, Zarim Osborn, Dave Rainey, Demi Raven, Cheryl dos Remedios, Susan Robb, Patricia Smith, Lance Thorton, Blair Wilson, Shawn Wolfe, Walter Wright

December 3 – 27, 1998

Location / 310 1st Ave. (Elliott Bay Books Underground)

The toy is the physical embodiment of the fiction: it is a device for fantasy, a point of beginning for narrative. The toy opens an interior world, lending itself to fantasy and privacy in a way that the abstract space, the playground, of social play does not. To toy with something is to manipulate it, to try it out within sets of contexts, none of which is determinative.

— Susan Stewart, On Longing, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984

After opening their new space last month, the SOIL art collective held a seasonal think-tank. The result is “Play/Things”, a rich, provocative, funny show... Pieces line the walls, freshly painted with outsize polka-dots. Works dominate every corner, sit on stands and litter the floor. It would be hard to repress delight at the sheer assault–of color, wit and an edgy imagination.

— Cynthia Rose, "SOIL's Seasonal Show Built On An Overflowing Bag of Fun, Seattle Times, December 1999