‘ENDURANCE TEST’, 2025, installation, solo show

Documentation by Chris Kendall

Artist Statement

Prepubescent athleticism drips with endorphins and innuendos, like the space below the bleachers or the corridors of the locker room. Both are hypervisible and private erogenous zones for adolescent sexuality. I question its materiality: how strips of grass only grow where the sun shines through the slats of the bleachers, the sweaty stench of locker room tiles, the journey around the bases, aiming for a home run, yearning to go all the way. 

Artificial grass ‘grows’ over tiled lockers in a display of entropy and artifice. Artificially grown salt crystals encase artificial hair, a splintered baseball bat, and a concrete cast of a bowling pin. A basketball hoop woven out of synthetic hair sprouts from a mosaic backboard. Rather than attempting to stimulate growth, as one does when exercising, I am simulating growth - imitating it. I toy with temptation, teasing the viewer with objects, their decorative presentation subverting their utility. The water fountain is constantly recycling itself, pumping in an endless loop. If the viewer were to drink from it, the fountain would eventually run dry. The bleachers are suspended like swings, yet are delicate and would crumble with weight. The sports equipment has been broken, manipulated, or dismantled and are encased in delicate, prepubescent crystals, rendering them useless.  

Snippets of autobiography and artifice whisper from behind bases and lie buried under mulch. They are woven into themselves and fragmented into shards. This tedious work reflects onto the viewer, requiring their tedious viewing. It is an endurance test for the viewer and the artist, awash with voyeuristic craving.