Shoot!
Goodbye August. Hello sweet summer memories!
For this last post in the “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!” series, I’m leaning into art focused on basketball.
Project Backboard, William LaChance
The Kinloch Park court is one of several projects spearheaded by Project Backboard, a nonprofit that refurbishes run-down basketball courts, primarily in urban neighborhoods across the United States, by covering them with art.
See
The artists below have used the theme of basketball to breathe new life into city courts, make a statement, and to celebrate the sport using a basketball as brush!
Guernica, 2016, Hank Willis Thomas
In Hank Willis Thomas’ wide-ranging conceptual practice, he explores how American society commodifies Black male identity. His works—which span photography, sculpture, textile, installation, and more—often reflect on media representations and social justice. (artsy)
Inner City Angel, 2022, Emmanuel Massillon
Force Fed, 2022, Emmanuel Massillon
In his practice, Emmanuel Massillon references the looming presence of sports stardom over the inner-city, where athletics are often prioritized at an early age. In works like Force Fed (2022), Superbowl Sundae (2021), and African American Dodger (2021), Massillon examines how sports leagues exploit Black bodies for their own gain, and their complicity in indoctrinating a culture into believing that class mobility through sports is either the best way or the only way.
In Inner City Angel (2022), Massilion takes a traditional African mask and affixes a basketball rim atop like an angel’s halo. The work represents a spirit who descends from the heavens to bless a young basketball player living in the inner-city with the rare talent and luck required to go from the streets to the league. Similar to how one can’t budget their way out of poverty, one can’t simply work their way to the NBA. It has less to do with personal will and more to do with divine intervention.
Deja Kelly by Samantha Woj
30" x 40". Painting made on canvas with a basketball as a paintbrush, 2024. A paintbrush was used to further the marks made by the basketball. Deja Kelly is an American college basketball player for the North Carolina Tar Heels of the Atlantic Coast Conference. She is a three-time first-team All-ACC selection. Kelly graduated from Duncanville High School in Duncanville, Texas, where she was named a McDonald's All-American.
Wojciechowicz is an art therapist who spends her free time painting one-of-a-kind pieces that combine sports stars with the equipment they play with. Instead of using a paintbrush, Wojciechowicz — who goes by Samantha Woj for her art — dips an actual football into her paint to create portraits of Patrick Mahomes, Jared Goff and more. Hockey paintings are done with hockey sticks.
Say
Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace.
Why might Hank Willis Thomas have chosen Picasso’s Guernica to appropriate for his basketball jersey artwork?
What message does it communicate?
What is your reaction to Emmanuel Massillon’s African mask with basketball themes?
Do
Compare and contrast the image of Picasso’s Guernica with Hank Willis Thomas’ 2016 Guernica.
Read more about artists using basketball to address social injustice.
Watch Samantha Woj at work:
About Project Backboard
Project Backboard is a 501(c)(3) organization, founded in 2015, whose mission is to renovate public basketball courts and install large scale works of site-specific art on the surface in order to strengthen communities, improve park safety, encourage multi-generational play, and inspire people to think more critically and creatively about their environment.
Adia Millett, Taking Flight
Andrea Bergart, McCaffrey Playground
Noritaka Tatehana, Aqua Park
Faith Ringgold,Windows of the Wedding, #1, St. Nicholas Park
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