✰ Concept ✰

This is Not a Toy

“People are very quick to say, ‘I love that’ or ‘I hate that’. Big decisions are being made based on split second interactions, little research or time is often put into our opinions.” – Esme Gill-Brown

In an age of hyper-connectivity, why is it that we feel so detached? Social media trains us to scroll and react to everything – from news to art – without forming meaningful connections to what we are shown. This produces a disconnect in the viewing experience, which has slowly encroached onto the experience of human interaction itself. Within This is Not a Toy, Esme Gill-Brown addresses this reality and encourages audiences to break from this rapid mode of spectatorship. Instead, audiences are asked to contemplate and reflect on the messages of the pieces, viewing them as communicative devices with something to say. 

To capture the mental distress and loss that emerges from a disconnected world, the exhibition uses a sarcastic visual language, juxtaposing cute and stereotypically feminine designs with darker phrases and harsh brutalist locations. Simultaneously, toys from both the artist’s and her parents’ childhood are employed as materials to capture the need for care and sentimentality. By representing these contrasting themes together, the exhibition asserts a need for nurturement and challenges audiences to consider the darker sides of the contemporary age. We are not merely lifeless objects. We are not to be played with We are not toys…

exhibition overview written by Chris Le

Listen to This is not a toy playlist