Kieran Riley Abbott
Portable Hole
May 14 - 22, 2020
Portable Hole is an exhibition of distraction and escape, taking advantage of the isometric perspective of Animal Crossing: New Horizons to create a space that doubles as a giant six-sided die. The dots of this die double as portable holes: the cartoon device that characters throw onto the floor or wall to escape a fraught situation. The holes present in this show are modeled after the hole emoji, a mysterious symbol that can be used to represent a void, black hole, rabbit hole, or golf hole. In this exhibition, Abbott evokes feelings of uncertainty and randomness inherent in dice games, and in portable holes - where do these portals take you when you escape into them?
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been heralded as an escapist fantasy, distracting players from “these unprecedented times.” This exhibition could be considered an escape from and escape, a game within a game.
