In the flat red frame in the photo, the woman is smiling upwards. She holds the camera and looks down at the whirlpool of her body. Near her face, basketball sinks into the net. Under her feet, white lines divide the image, like the creases in a pocket mirror. On the other side of the line, the matte red of the basketball court replaces the black and white lines and the brush strokes of the texture separated by the grid. These abstracted forms, with differences, reflect the illustrious skills of women.The title of this image is “A’ja Wilson and Team USA extend consecutive wins to 51 | Kandinsky.” You can find it in my favorite place on the internet: Instagram account @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s.
The @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s post provides partners with a photo of the NBA or WNBA player and a photo with modified details from the artwork (usually an oil painting). If you feel nervous about Frisson’s mention of the name to the famous German design school, don’t worry. @ b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s does not flatten the player into a high culture dupe, nor does it flatten the sport into a noble and vague “art” idea. .. Instead, the @ b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s comparison recognizes professional basketball as an integration of labor and creativity, craft and art, practice and individuality. I love the vision of the game.
The width of these images reveals that most sports media admire a narrow range of features.
Using comparisons to describe objects of interest, whether artistic, athletic, or both, is not a new strategy. However, the @ b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s post has a gorgeous eerie, rewiring the expectations I bring to the players they draw. Their physical and emotional insights go beyond what the “Sports Center” highlight reel can show. look: LeBron James is a self-portrait of Lucian Freud, staggering, distorting, and cerebrum. The sadness of Janis Adetokumpo, His loose joints are as heavy as Jennifer Packer’s seated figure in Mario II. Sophie Cunningham’s Victory, Hair Flare, Like Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” and Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus”, it shines violently. The width of these images reveals that most sports media admire a narrow range of features. Consider the perspective of Philadelphia at James Harden. That stubborn eccentricity is unreadable to most analysts. The image of @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s shows something different. They jump into the sensibilities of the players and seem to understand that being strange, effective and ambivalent can be part of the power of these players. In one @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s post, Stare tightly Outside the frame, next to Paul Gauguin’s “Hiva Oa Wizard”, a secret eye.
During the NBA Playoffs, I noticed the power of @ b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s. It culminated in a clash between Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors (the sweetest three-point shooter ever known in the sport) and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics (a young star of the emerging world). Did. .. How can I understand these players as people and artists? Instead of asking where Tatum fits in the NBA’s great Pantheon, @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s posted an image like this: “Celtics rise 3-0 | Edgar Degas.” Surrounded by Nets players, Tatum stretches into the air and his arms stretch towards the elegant Port Debra basket. His jersey finds a mirror in the ballerina’s tulle skirt and sparkles as he sweeps towards Arabesque. The dancer’s legs move away from his head tilt while gracefully balancing. Tatum’s muscular shoulders reflect the delicate arches of Ballerina’s toe shoes.
Looking at this symbolic image of (white) femininity used to complement Tatum’s strength, it felt like a revelation. Critic John Berger has famously observed that “men act and women appear” in art and life. But the numbers @ b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s define their meaning through what their movements can do, across genders and genres. @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s continued to interpret Curry’s play through a series of juxtapositions to dancers. Lois Mailou Jones’ painting “La Baker”. Sometimes monumental strength, Like a Picasso woman on the beach. In this context, imagining Tatum in Degas’s ballerina doesn’t seem to be a joke or an overly easy equivalent. Instead, it emphasizes the accuracy of his technique. What can other sports media achieve if they are willing to rethink gender in the same way as the ultimate sign of an athlete’s value or ability? What can we talk about these athletes and their world if they get attention through the wide-angle lens of @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s?
Sports are played to win. It’s part of their joy. Perhaps it may seem strange to compete with sports media rankings, which only track the competitive structure of the game itself. But basketball, like art, is worth more than the final score or price tag. Simple calculations cannot determine what a particular player means to a game or fan. I love how @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s recognizes players’ cosmopolitanism and humor along with their ferocity and sweat, and how all of this persists in the event of a defeat. The @b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s view is appealing to me because the comparison resists both simple equivalence and compulsory hierarchies. Enriches the images on both sides of the frame, making art and athletes look wilder and more compelling. Criticism, whether sports or art, often fails to capture this thrill. At its best, @ b_a_l_l_h_a_u_s can feel like the best basketball game, with both teams playing the most elegant and powerful. One team wins, but it’s everyone’s talent to make victory a work of art.
Sarah Mesle is a Los Angeles-based professor, writer and editor. She is a faculty member at the University of Southern California and editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books online magazine Avidly.
