Everything in the gallery is touchable and laid out with minimal explanation for visitors to create their own version of a game and how they want to play it. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

Art galleries tend to be pretty quiet spaces, but a new exhibit at the Nanaimo Art Gallery is welcoming visitors to jump, dance, and play around.

League Nanaimo is a project led by Vancouver and Salt Spring Island-based artist Germaine Koh that combines art and play.

CHLY met with Koh at the gallery ahead of its opening.

“The entire project is based around this ongoing project of mine called League, the premise of which is that we’re exploring play as a form of creative practice,” Koh said.

As an artistic and sporty child growing up, Koh said they have always seen the intersection of creativity and physical activity.

“So to me [growing up], there was little distinction between the kind of play that happens during sports and games and the kind of play that happens in artistic practices. Now that I'm an artist, I realize everybody's always wanting to be creative,” she said. “They see it's a thing that is really valued in our society, but that people don't always get trained to do unless they're in an art program or something or something like that.”

So with that idea, Koh said the exhibit gives a lot of creative freedom to visitors to discover how they want to play in the gallery.

Everything in the gallery is touchable and laid out with minimal explanation for visitors to create their own version of a game and how they want to play it.

“So everybody starts out at zero when we invent a new game together, right? So you don't have to have the privilege that people have when they have expertise in a certain sport, or they have training in this or that,” she said. “It's like we're all beginners, so then we can all sort of make something together, starting out as equals, as peers.”

Pieces have been made by Koh with items that were once left as garbage, which she modified to resemble sports and play equipment.

“Then before you know it, we've made something together. Maybe it's interesting, maybe it's not, but that's part of the whole process of developing something and giving each other feedback about whether something is working or not, whether it needs this kind of tweak or that kind of tweak,” she said. “It creates a space where we can have those kinds of conversations in a low-consequence way.”

She said that because this exhibit breaks down the common art gallery rule of not touching exhibit pieces, it may seem intimidating for some.

“There's a range of things that are very clearly inviting interaction, and others where you might ask yourselves those questions, ‘oh, should I touch? Should I not touch? How should I do this?’ These are some of the questions that we're really practicing asking. That's ultimately the kind of questions that all art pieces are asking you,” she said. “Most of them, the answer is you're just meant to interact with your eyes, but with contemporary art, we should be broadening that question to say, ‘are we interacting with it, with just our eyes or also with our bodies and also with other people?’”

Along with the exhibit taking place at the art gallery, League Nanaimo is getting people out in the community to be active, with free events suitable for all ages and abilities.

Throughout August and September, events are being held at Deverill Square in the south end of Nanaimo and May Richards Bennett Pioneer Park in the north end of Nanaimo.

The events are to engage participants to use sports and imagination to invent new ways of moving, playing, and connecting through game-making.

Koh said a big part of having these events allows those who are not always able to go to an art gallery to still take part in seeing how art and sports can cross over.

League Nanaimo is on now until October 5th at the Nanaimo Art Gallery in downtown Nanaimo.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.