Our Lady and the Net / 2008
Many don’t know this, but the early work I created about basketball- around 2008, before I even started making nets or formed the NCAA Collective- also incorporated the Rosary. I would perform ball handling rituals and free-throws synced with “Hail Mary” prayers in gallery and athletic spaces, transforming a childhood practice of repetition- counting Swishes and Ave Marias- into art. Generally the rhythmic Rosary, which strings together 5 sets of 10 infinitely looping prayers, paired nicely with my daily physical exercise, particularly my meditative free throw rituals.
“Our Lady and the Net” was performed in an old Boston studio of TT Baum’s for an intimate performance salon series. Here’s how it unfolded: Two of my “teammates” taught the audience a familiar stomp-clap rhythm we used to perform from the benches during basketball games. Everyone continued this rhythm for the duration of the piece. I performed several of the ball handling drills I used to warm up with, or repeat before shooting a free throw. This would last for one Hail Mary with a shot at the basket on the Amen. If I made the basket, one of my teammates would coat one audience member’s hands with honey That I’d extracted from the first bees I ever kept. My goal, after 50 shots/ an entire Rosary, was to silence the room. With about 30 people watching, and a basket count of 30/50 swishes, I managed to coat the last person’s hands one my final shot. The whole room held sticky hands together in a more prayerful position.