Stars in that Baby Blue - 2009
In 2009, I spent the better half of the year obsessing over the blues – baby blue & baseball. I decided to join the local softball team, and began to knit & knit & knit uniforms as well as baseball gear; all in preparation for my residency/exhibition - Stars in that Baby Blue- at Struts Gallery, Sackville, NB.
Stars in that Baby Blue is an installation that combines soft sculpture, found objects, video, slide projection, paint & performance. It explores the popularity of sports - specifically baseball, and the extent to which people can LOVE or obsess over athletics. How and why people can invest so much of their lives, their physical energy, heart and/or dreams of greatness into one sport.
When taken into consideration the degrees to which popular culture has embraced and promoted particular sports (i.e. baseball) as a defining national symbol, one might suggest: Is it any wonder that many young North Americans grow up dreaming of participating within the Major Leagues or devoting their life to baseball? The hours and years I have spent devoted to sports and the pursuit of greatness have informed my recent concern with not only widespread delusions of fame or greatness, but also how broken dreams might affect the psychology of self-perception. Specifically, how convincing oneself that one “didn’t make it”, that one is “a failure”, could add to the human epidemic of fear, insecurity, expectation, uncertainty, loneliness, etc. As a result, I am constantly inquiring as to why it is that we set up ideals and expectations for ourselves, whether in the form of athletic greatness or in the larger faculties of our lives such as career aspirations and loving relationships, when, in fact there is no human imperative to answer to anyone other than oneself. If we could give up expectations altogether and allow concepts of “being great” to fall apart - as they often do - we might come to realize that the experience of life will always be encircled by triumph and defeat, love and loss, right and wrong, good and bad. Perhaps we simply need to relax and find forms for reflection; Stars in that Baby Blue rests within this belief.
Stars in that Baby Blue is an installation that combines soft sculpture, found objects, video, slide projection, paint & performance. It explores the popularity of sports - specifically baseball, and the extent to which people can LOVE or obsess over athletics. How and why people can invest so much of their lives, their physical energy, heart and/or dreams of greatness into one sport.
When taken into consideration the degrees to which popular culture has embraced and promoted particular sports (i.e. baseball) as a defining national symbol, one might suggest: Is it any wonder that many young North Americans grow up dreaming of participating within the Major Leagues or devoting their life to baseball? The hours and years I have spent devoted to sports and the pursuit of greatness have informed my recent concern with not only widespread delusions of fame or greatness, but also how broken dreams might affect the psychology of self-perception. Specifically, how convincing oneself that one “didn’t make it”, that one is “a failure”, could add to the human epidemic of fear, insecurity, expectation, uncertainty, loneliness, etc. As a result, I am constantly inquiring as to why it is that we set up ideals and expectations for ourselves, whether in the form of athletic greatness or in the larger faculties of our lives such as career aspirations and loving relationships, when, in fact there is no human imperative to answer to anyone other than oneself. If we could give up expectations altogether and allow concepts of “being great” to fall apart - as they often do - we might come to realize that the experience of life will always be encircled by triumph and defeat, love and loss, right and wrong, good and bad. Perhaps we simply need to relax and find forms for reflection; Stars in that Baby Blue rests within this belief.
*** the installation at Struts Gallery, sackville, nb - 2009
***
There are two video components within Stars in that Baby Blue. One is comprised of various individuals (community members in Sackvillle, NB) dressed in the baseball gear, while being briefly captured in action. Camera flashes highlight each player in action, which suggests that the notion of celebrity and greatness exists within every person, beyond an elitist group.
The second video, entitled Baby Blue, involves a young female singer & middle-aged couple coming into the spotlight and performing an appropriated version of the popular song “Blue Moon”. Their song is dedicated to feelings of loneliness and those who harbour hopeless or crushed dreams. This video would be projected on one of the gallery walls within the installation in an attempt to marry notions of hope alongside hopelessness, lost dreams alongside found greatness, and loneliness alongside companionship. In conjunction with this video, the actors have agreed to perform the song live within the gallery, perhaps during the opening of the prospective exhibition.
Together with the knitted baseball gear, these videos combine to create a dialogue that addresses the “blues” in feeling divided or lost in ones vision for greatness and/or future love. It is without a doubt that within Stars in that Baby Blue I have taken a risk; I have merged an unlikely combination of concepts (broken romance & sports) because I am interested in layers and providing the viewer with the potential for multiple narratives, multiple ways of reading & seeing work.
