box for Impending Future Bus, Randy Regier

Exhibition Label: "Conversation VIII: Serious Play," Jun-2010, Kate Meyer and Susan Earle When we play we have fun. If we are just playing, we do not “mean it”-we are not serious. But play may not always be light-hearted. When we watch two teams play a sport the athletes are committed to their activity. The ability to play a musical instrument requires years of hard practice. Cartoons can be playful but a political cartoon uses an accessible visual style to comment on society. Anyone who has been teased by someone who was “just playing” can still be hurt by those words. Randy Regier and H.C. Westermann explore American mass culture from the 1950s, including children’s toys and cartoons, to comment on the interaction of Americans with their landscape, race, death, disaster, and an uncertain future. The artists share a commitment to craftsmanship, an engaging, playful style, and an unquestionable seriousness of purpose.