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<\/a>\u201cMy art practice is about questioning things, maybe trying to look at certain modes of being and trying to subvert those things,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m fascinated by those moments in human behaviour where the logic of our minds or maybe the social norms that we\u2019re used to are pushed to the wayside and we experience things more in a humorous way or in a light-hearted way.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Way or Another<\/i>, an exhibit of Dickie\u2019s artwork at Open Space, employs video games as a means of questioning the competitive structure of contemporary art and our enduring fascination with watching human struggle. The project consists of sculptures and a video trilogy that takes inspiration from 1980s video games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project uses 1980s video games as a visual platform for the works; those are the video games I grew up with, like Donkey Kong<\/i> and basic Atari games,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I\u2019ve used that as a visual strategy for a project, but it has the look and feel of a video game and the character\u2019s constantly failing and dying, then [the character] pops up on the screen again and tries again.\u201d<\/p>\n
An older work of Dickie\u2019s was based on a complex math equation regarding how five circles can come together; for the piece, she kept building the circles in modes of five until they started to make a sphere. She took that form and made it into a giant playful piece, The Jiggler<\/i>. It\u2019s an example of a serious idea with a fun delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see people looking at my artwork. It\u2019s a slight moment people choose to almost go to a child-like state and embrace something fun,\u201d she says. \u201cI find that people are very guarded, especially in gallery situations. You see people in the gallery with their arms crossed in front of them and then, all of a sudden, they see that something is playful.\u201d<\/p>\n