Decoys and Wheel of Fortune
In the series Ballpark Figures, newspaper sports coverage is the source for compositions based on contours of athletes ‘in play.’ Ironically reminiscent of Mannerist figures they soar into heights capped by courts or playing fields transformed here as the outer limits of their rarified space. Filling their forms with lush paisley abstractions resonates with the peculiar reality of players who are reduced to a number yet simultaneously elevated by the fetishism of their fans. Additionally, paisley, a common fabric pattern with a deep and complex past, serves as a metaphor for erased history and the emptying out of significance when a figure or form is commodified through its manufacture. Problematic aspects of the commercialization of sports slip away in its overwhelming spectacle.
(private collection)