"Daisies" Exhibit Takes Playtime Seriously at GSE

Photographer and designer Molly Quill wants you to think of children’s playtime as more than just an idle pastime. Quill’s “Decapitating Daisies,” an exhibit that went up at the Monroe C. Gutman Library in the Graduate School of Education on Sept. 30, is composed of photographs of childhood experiences. The collection reflects on childhood as a defining moment in an individual’s social development and sense of identity. Quill was present at an opening reception on Tuesday for the show, which will be on display through Oct. 31.

According to Quill, who was educated at the Massachusetts College of Art, the work is inspired by several summers she spent caring for the young children of a family friend, which made her reflect on the challenges and wonders of growing up. “This work is an explorative journey of a child…. This work also reinforces the notion that play is an indispensable aspect of human development,” Quill says. All of the photos are of children that she looked after, some taken in the course of their play and some of which have been deliberately posed.

This is the first solo show for Quill, who says that her interest in photography began as nothing more than a hobby. Quill’s pictures, however, quickly developed into a more substantial lens through which to explore human behavior. “As I began taking more formal images, I was really interested in the duality of being an adult and an outsider as well as a playmate to these children, and this intimacy helped me have a greater understanding of their thoughts and their actions,” Quill says.

“Decapitating Daisies,” the title of the exhibit, is taken from a line in Andrew Hudgins’s poem “Blur,” which focuses on childhood play as exciting, but also boring and frustrating. This theme of boredom is essential to Quill’s work as well. One photo shows an abandoned fossil kit, presumably once the subject of play but now discarded. “[The children] uncovered the fossil, but abandoned the project because of boredom,” Quill says. This idea of boredom and its inseparable connection to play and the process of growing up made “Decapitating Daisies” an appropriate choice of title, she says.

At the same time, Quill recognizes that her work raises pressing questions about societal norms and gender issues almost unintentionally. “In a lot of ways, gender is present in the work—the girl is more of a passive character, whereas the boys have a more aggressive and traditional presence,” she says, referring to the boys’ choice of playtime activities—toy guns, airplanes, and tanks.

Quill also describes the use of color as essential in advancing this dichotomy. There is a more significant use of blue with relation to boys, whereas pink is primarily used in pictures with girls. According to Quill, this distinction began unintentionally, but once she became aware of it in her work, she chose to highlight it further.

Kathryn Robinson, curator and gallery manager at the Gutman Library Gallery, agrees that color is an important aspect of this gender polarity that the exhibit underscores. In addition to the link to gender, Robinson also reflected on the way the photos fit into a larger context of artistic tradition. “These photos really speak to the iconography of art history,” Robinson says. For example, in reference to a portrait of a young girl by a windowsill, the curator says Quill’s focus has an almost angelic, Renaissance look. “The beauty of Molly’s work is that she is able to take contemporary photography and ground it in history, and part of this history is gender representations,” she says.

Next month, the Gutman Library Gallery will exhibit another collection of art pieces, this time from a diverse array of artists. The November exhibit will also include a broader range of media, including paintings, print works, photographs, literature, and film stills that reflect on the theme of education.

Both Quill and Robinson hope that visitors will appreciate the importance of play in human development and one’s sense of self that “Daisies” is meant to communicate. “I hope visitors make a personal connection with the photos and engage with the pictures,” Robinson says.