Exhibition 'Leisure Land Golf' in York Art Gallery
Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf is a fully playable crazy golf course, with each golf hole designed and made by a different artist from the contemporary art world.
Each artist differs greatly in style, medium, influence and background, resulting in a series of very different artworks which all share the same concept – the ‘Leisure Principal’.
The ‘Leisure Principle’ is the curatorial theme that has inspired the content of the installation. It refers to the idea of tourism and trade as a metaphor to explore current global economic debates through one of the key values of leisure – consumption, and how it shapes our identity.
Beyond the sculptural brilliance of the works, interacting with the pieces themselves through playing a round of crazy golf invites visitors to engage with important cultural topics including migration, global warming and globalisation.
More widely, the artworks ask us to explore the histories and relationships – both real and imagined – between work, leisure, colonialism, tourism, information and economics.
While golf is a recognised sport, normally associated with the wealthy elite, crazy golf is often considered a working-class activity played purely for fun – again widening the debate surrounding consumerism and leisure across different socio-economic levels.
