Sometimes We Remember Our Bedrooms 

Childhood bedrooms are special places. Within those walls, kids play, create, and imagine. These rooms are where young people make sense of the big, complicated world around them. For many of us, remembering those spaces hits with a pang of nostalgia and comfort. These are the themes explored in the upcoming Hamiltonian Artists exhibit, Sometimes, We Remember Our Bedrooms by Luke Ikard in collaboration with Joshua Gamma. Opening on Saturday, July 10, both artists combine “distorted domestic objects, playground equipment, and a time-warped soundtrack of memory” to remember the bedrooms they grew up within, according to the exhibit’s press release. The artists acknowledge, however, that this was done with an intentionally inaccurate representation of these spaces. Ikard, a D.C.-based Hamiltonian Artist, creates a sculpture installation with bunk beds and objects a child might find on the playground. In the exhibit description, Ikard’s installation is described as “fort-like,” a juxtaposition of “play and places of rest”—both of which are vital to a child’s growth and development. Gamma, a guest artist from Baltimore, combines images and audio saved from his childhood so visitors can both see and hear snippets of his youth. He plays a mix of songs and other local radio musings to resemble the “pre-internet, pre-corporate-FM-takeover airwaves of South-Central Louisiana,” according to the event description, reflecting on the “profound cultural exchange that radio can be untethered from bland monoculture.” His multimedia exhibit transports us back into what he was listening to as a child, which invites us to think about the soundtrack of our own adolescent memories. The exhibit runs from July 10 through Aug. 21 at Hamiltonian Gallery, 1353 U St. NW. hamiltonianartists.org. The opening reception is July 10 at 4 p.m.