A Series of 50 Drawings
Ink & colored pencil on Kitakata paper
(Japanese handmade paper c. 1955)
17 x 22in.
2023
The work deconstructs the institution and business of the sports world as a pathway to confront global issues, conditions for migrant workers, exposing financials, nostalgia and the perpetuating American way of tearing down its own history, just to make room for the new.
This three part series of architectural style drawings include:
Part One - 32 National Football League stadiums with research and text that follows the absurdity of money and power it has acquired. The institution and the billionaire owners of teams in the league, often obtaining subsidies and taxpayer’s money to fund new stadiums. This work also recognizes that the NFL generates capital by the way of jobs, merchandise, gambling and so much more. So who benefits from this navigation between displays of corporate legitimation and representation of power?
Part Two - 8 stadiums designed and built for the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar. This controversial event, took place in a country criticized for their labor practices by human rights organizations. According to Amnesty International, there are 1.7 million migrant workers in the country, accounting for over 90% of the workforce in a population of 2.9 million. From bribery to human rights issues, the series continues to import home in a world of an altering class system.
Part Three - 10 of the most iconic Major League Baseball stadiums that have since been demolished for new stadiums or in some cases, housing projects. What seems to be tearing down the nostalgia and American dream for the baby boomer generation, yet this also gave way to the current climate in the league, which is now made up of almost 30% of international players. One may also draw similarities to the Roman ruins (intentionally destroyed by the Romans themselves) that of trying to perpetrate the survival of a troubled society.
Michael Asher’s work of institutional critique by altering or removing walls, facades or making interventions based on his research about an institution, influenced these drawings. Weather his art followed the money and owner’s of a particular piece of artwork, or re-building the gallery walls of past exhibitions, he deconstructed not only art and architectural spaces, but the world arounds us. This unveiling or removal of the facade influenced my work and leads to a title that pays homage to the loss of a personal mentor.
