Power Play brings together works from the Tang collection that use play to challenge various power structures and our assumptions about them. Rather than confront power with indignation or solemnity, these works employ many forms of play ranging from satire and delightful or uncomfortable humor to toying with images by others.
The works in Power Play address power’s complexity and its many guises, from the global scale of politics and inequality to the intimacy of sexual dynamics. Several works imply the bodily harm power can inflict, while others suggest the comfort or even gratification that submission to control can offer. Other pieces explore how power can dictate who and what have a discernible cultural and historical presence and what is ignored or forgotten.