This exhibition features two major site-specific installations by Stephen Hendee and Phoebe Washburn, and includes a ping-pong table designed in tandem by both artists located at the center of the gallery, where visitors can reflect on the exhibition’s duality while playing a game or two.
Taking a historic 1971 table tennis tournament as its point of reference, Ping-Pong Diplomacy explores the idea of working out differences through play by bringing together two artists who follow similar rules to express divergent styles and concepts. Stephen Hendee, who is based in Las Vegas, uses simple materials like corrugated plastic sheets, photo tape, fluorescent lights, and hot glue to create multi-faceted, glowing, geometric landscapes that summon comparisons to the stage sets of science-fiction films, like the 1982 cult classic Tron.
Similarly, Phoebe Washburn, a New York-based artist, also comments on urban sprawl by composing works with post-consumerist materials she discovers and collects from loading docks, alleyways, and dumpsters. Using these seemingly basic materials that reflect a society of excess, Washburn creates intricate, tumbling architectural landscapes fused together in a way that is disjointed, random, and largely improvisational.
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Web Site
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