benefits of doubt
Gen Townsend
10
February 2022
10
February
2022
4
March 2022
Gallery 3
‘benefits of doubt’ is a game and satirical company playing on the stereotypes and power dynamics in the art world. Players are divided into beggars and choosers and must shift the blame or benefit from doubt. The game’s title references the precarity of being an artist and the ways in which institutions benefit and limit artists’ visibility and financial stability.Questions about diversity and reports about inequality in arts and cultural institutions are spread throughout the character cards and website: benefitsofdoubt.com. Amidst simple cartoons and images of smiling artists, the game references data that aims to unsettle the real players in the game and question individual complicity in social structures.
Exhibition documented by Lucy Foster.
‘benefits of doubt’ is a game and satirical company playing on the stereotypes and power dynamics in the art world. Players are divided into beggars and choosers and must shift the blame or benefit from doubt. The game’s title references the precarity of being an artist and the ways in which institutions benefit and limit artists’ visibility and financial stability.Questions about diversity and reports about inequality in arts and cultural institutions are spread throughout the character cards and website: benefitsofdoubt.com. Amidst simple cartoons and images of smiling artists, the game references data that aims to unsettle the real players in the game and question individual complicity in social structures.
Gen Townsend
Gen Townsend works in mixed media installations and socially engaged events. She playfully intervenes with everyday objects and creates participatory art founded in socio-political critique. Her practice is research-based and explores power dynamics, often with self-referential investigation into whiteness in Australia and the arts.