Basketball as Art
Image by Erik Funk
Posted by Ali Mao
The web is a wonderful thing. Seriously. 10 years ago did anyone think Youtube would become a mind-numbing staple of your day? Watching babies and puppies do things they do every day, but because they're on the web it ends up being "oh so much cuter"?
Or that Facebook would become one of the preeminent social media platforms that could connect you to someone across the globe with a single keystroke?
Or that vimeo would be a place where independent filmmakers and artists could showcase their amazing works for everyone to see...For FREE?! Ok maybe they aren't excited they're showcasing their work for free, but the Asian in me gets giddy at all the awesomely free videos I get to watch on a daily basis.
And when all those forces work together, works like MicMac Lane, of not only incredible artistic merit but depicting basketball in an abstract way that still manages to be truer than any play-by-play could dream of being, emerge and get shared (and hopefully re-shared). I don't know if this kid balls, but he definitely knows the game. I love the use of negative space to create depth and shadow and that what little sound effects there are create a hyperawareness of the action. I love the facelessness of the characters, how it humanizes them in a way that anyone who watches or plays can relate to the players. Not to mention the Marvel-eque quality that some how brings the fluidity of the sport to life.
Maybe it's not for everyone, no art ever is, but I like it.
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ROMY -
It's always a nice gust of fresh air when anyone outside of the mainstream "jock" sports establishment flies into sports, so to speak, and puts a different spin on it. The conversation can get stuffy inside the old boys network, especially when they insist on directing fans' attention to the same rehashed headlines and stats, contracting the universe of chatter to something predictable and stilted. As fans, we experience sports as a kind of poetry: breathtaking, open to interpretation and whose explanations always falls short of the combination of spontaneous grace and athleticism that we've just been privy to. Art seems to have a broader and more nuanced lexicon that's better suited to interpret/describe sport, whether it be literal, metaphorical or even subversive commentary.
Here are a few pieces by Hank Willis Thomas, from his "Branded" exhibit. He re-appropriates recognizable advertising symbols to convey some pretty interesting and charged cultural meanings. Have a look:
