If You Build It ('Til Kingdom Come)

“If You Build It (‘Til Kingdom Come)” is a solo MFA exhibition by Jared Peterson. The artist uses baseball as a metaphor to explore the role of labor, sports, and evangelicalism in leveraging hope to exploit gendered identities. Through this installation, he also invites a reflection on the power of these institutions in creating unique spaces of communion, brotherhood, and personal expression by assembling people of similar convictions or who participate in shared rituals. In doing so, the artist balances the vulnerabilities of connection and precarities of participating in these communities and traditions. Using neon, shipping pallets, porcelain, coal and cinder blocks to illustrate the possibility of shifting and softening masculine sensibilities, the work aims to question what meaningful change looks like when constrained by systems that know how to exploit you. Exhibition Dates: Nov.14–Nov. 30 Reception: Friday, Nov. 15, 6 p.m.–9 p.m. Gallery Hours: Thursday–Saturday, noon–5 p.m. Image: Installation details, photo credit Mehrdad Mirzaie