Play Fair
Becky Bliss
June 22nd - July 17th 2020
I’ve been looking at the history of children’s toys and have noted a form of ‘childhood by design’ that targeted girls and boys with proscriptive advertising by gender. I’m particularly interested in the shaping of consumer demand, for example the now ubiquitous ‘pink for girls and blue for boys’.
The work in Play Fair responds to Meccano, a model construction system created in the late 19th century and still available today, which uses reusable strips, plates, angles and wheels and has repeatedly employed slogans such as “Engineering for Boys”. Such coding by gender has profound effects on the development of children, channelling their interests and shaping their adult identities.
I’ve made a contemporary family that plays with gender stereotypes. Playful and provocative I invite the audience to reflect on their own upbringing and the toys they played with.
Father
Son