30 January 2015

Troika and Dark Matter: Three-in-One


Troika is an artist trio based in London: Conny Freyer, Eva Rucki, and Sebastian Noel.

“We are three people with different sensitivities…The question becomes how do you synthesize that? How do you grow bigger than the individual?” asks Sebastian.

When they worked on a piece, Conny observes, “…the dialogue became almost as important as the physical outcome.”

Sebastian agrees: “…this idea of collaborating together, the collective, is very important…it’s a way of working out in the process the idea we are exploring.”

So, what is the idea to which he refers? In the video below they explain a work featured in June 2014 at Art Basel, a modern art gallery in Switzerland. The piece is called Dark Matter. A word of explanation:

If you were told to make a square circle you would likely say, “You’re off your rocker! You can’t make a square circle. A square can only be a square and a circle can only be a circle.”

Well, Troika shows how these two shapes can truly be one. In fact, they go one further. In Dark Matter, Troika expresses three shapes in one form.

The key is perception. As you change your viewing stance, the square becomes a circle and the circle becomes a hexagon.

So what is Dark Matter: a circle, a square or a hexagon? It is all of these and none of these all at once. It is three-in-one.  

For Troika, the embodiment of three distinct shapes in a unified form signifies more than a clever way to trick your eyes. It is a statement about reconciling contradictions through a “greater order.” Here are some excerpts* from their exposition of the work.

“People reveal truth through science…people reveal truth through faith…they are put in polar opposites all the time…Is there a possible synthesis between those things? Can you be religious and rational? Can you [do] art in a logical manner? Can science be subjective?”

“Instead of trying to put things in a box, which is like the premise of modernism…or postmodernism that accepts everything, we are trying to reconnect those two and try to see if there is not something higher than that, a greater order that would synthesize those things?”

Some might call it an artistic representation of post-postmodernism. At PlayFull we can’t help but call their process play, an expression of unified distinction.

View the video. It’s fascinating to see how they reconcile three contradictions.




* In transcribing Troika’s comments, I took the liberty of tweaking the phrasing in small ways so as to make their comments more readable, while trying to maintain the chief sense of their statements.



PlayFull is dedicated to helping people, groups and organizations play from the inside-out. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Thank you for reading.

29 January 2015

28 January 2015

Patsy Clairmont on Duvet Covers

Hump Day is Humor Day at PlayFull. Let's not take ourselves too seriously! Here's a hilarious story from Patsy Clairmont about...duvet covers. Enjoy!




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22 January 2015

Thursday Thought:: Janice Elsheimer on Nurturing the Artistic Self

"We have to reprogram our minds to believe that the work of our artist selves is at least as important as the work of our housekeeper selves, our yard-maintenance selves, our parenting selves, and our workaday world selves. By allowing our artist self to blossom and grow, we will be enhancing all those other selves, including the part of us that cares for and nurtures others."  

-Janice Elsheimer, The Creative Call


PlayFull exists to help people and organizations play from the inside-out.  Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Thank you for reading. 


21 January 2015

Jimmy Fallon Nominates These NFL Players as "Most Likely To..."

So...before the Packer's heartbreaking loss to the Seahawks on Sunday, Jimmy Fallon nominated these players as "Most Likely To..."

Enjoy!




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We don't want to take ourselves too seriously so Hump Day is Humor Day at PlayFull. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.


19 January 2015

the land flowing with MiLK and honey

Go ahead.
Strangle me.
I still have a voice.

Twist my words
and they’ll still dance.

Call me red or pink.
It doesn’t matter.
I’ll still be black and proud.

Raise a loud
cheer,
          drown out
the gunshot and smear
campaign.
God’s truth reigns

for men and women,
young and old
from every tribe and language
and nation and color

yes, color
every color

will stand as one,
risen from the ashes,
free of oppression,
with only one obsession

that love wins the day.

So say what you would say.
I will be me anyway.






the land flowing with MiLK and honey
by troy cady




 ...in observance of Martin Luther King day,  2015.