Curated by Allison Peters, Director of Exhibitions, The Adventurous Type presents photography, installations and drawing that escapes any chance for boredom at Hyde Park Art Center. Some of the artworks are based on the artists’ escapades, other pieces are concocted from stories of voyages told, reenacted or purely invented. The blurring of fact and fiction in the artworks creates a grey area for the viewer to take part in the story and decide the outcome – positive or negative – of the journey. The blurring of fact and fiction in the artworks…creates a grey area for the viewer to take part in the story and decide the outcome. Enticingly dark, mysterious, and exhilarating, the artworks in the exhibition use narrative in a manner reminiscent of the Choose Your Own Adventure book, the most popular children’s book series of all time that was published between 1979 and 1998. Written in the second person and spanning all literary genres, these books encouraged role playing.
Similarly, the artworks in the exhibition call on the viewer to decide their role in the adventure being depicted and the outcome. Chicago artist, Deb Sokolow plays on our paranoia as her drawing directs us through the mystery of the Winchester house in San Jose, California. Outdoor enthusiasts can relate to the real and imagined perils set in the Galapagos Islands as depicted in the photographs by Canadian artist, Sarah Anne Johnson. In the video installation, Freed, artist Paul Lloyd Sargent channels the lawless persona of Abbie Hoffman as he wanders the St. Lawrence River to a secret destination. And finally, Christian Kuras & Duncan MacKenzie search for the superhero in us all through their first collaborative sculpture installation.
