Summer Camp (2014)

41. The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to "the serious." One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious.

-Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp

Summer Camp uses Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp" as a point of departure in presenting the work of 9 contemporary artists who employ camp/kitsch aesthetics. This work playfully engages with artifice, 'bad' taste, the grotesque, with double meaning and 'Being-as-Playing-a-Role' in critique of pop-culture, the academic, and normative representations of gender.

Summer Camp extends the exploration of artifice, borrowing its structure from summer camp. On a weekly basis, each artist guides attendees through an 'activity', from talent shows and cook-outs to lanyard-making and arts and crafts.

Participating artists/collectives: Persia + Daddie$ Pla$tik, Kate Rhoades, Jennie Lennick, Brynda Glazier, David Lasley, and Sara Wanie. Daddie$ Pla$tik is composed of San Cha, Vain Hein, and Tyler Holmes.

Pictured: San Cha performs scenes from her telenovela amidst work by Kate Rhoades (left) and Brynda Glazier (foreground).

Additional images available on request.