Play With Me

This summer, S12 Galleri og Verksted presents Play With Me, an exhibition by Philip Stokes and Scott Redding.

Working together for over two decades, the artists draw on shared experiences of growing up in Australia and New Zealand, using play as a starting point for a body of work that moves between memory, material, and imagination. Play With Me translates the experiences of play, past and present, into sculptural glass objects and installations that sit between the recognisable and the surreal.

Several of the character-based sculptures are inspired by the game of knucklebones, and embody childhood expressions used to describe personality and behaviour: Four Eyes, Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Big Mouth, All Ears, and Sticky Beak. At once humorous and slightly unsettling, they operate as distorted reflections of memory and playful recollections – and as a real representation of play in the studio itself.

The works combine hand-blown glass with reworked cut crystal sourced from second-hand shops – cut, reheated, and reshaped in the hot shop. Mirrored surfaces and vibrant colour splashes open up a playful universe that balances control and instability, precision and spontaneity – highlighting the discipline and elasticity of glass as a material.

Philip Stokes and Scott Redding are originally from Australia and New Zealand, and are based in Bergen, where they work as studio managers at S12 Galleri og Verksted.

The exhibition is supported by the City of Bergen, Norwegian Arts Council and Vestland County.