Automatic Double, Miami Dade College, Miami, FL
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Automatic Double- Statement
automatic double: A batted ball in fair territory which bounces out of play (e.g. into the seats) entitles the batter and all runners on base to advance two bases but no further. This term is used by some commentators in lieu of ground rule double, which refers to ground rules in effect at each ballpark.
When I was ten years old, I was a bonafide baseball fanatic. I was obsessed with collecting baseball cards, and had a good sized collection in the late eighties and early nineties. I recently rediscovered this collection and took it back to St. Louis with me. Looking through the cards again, I noticed how awkward the actual photographs of these athletes were. I started making sketches of these players without any signifying team logos. The result were portraits of white cis-men (men who are born biologically male) who visually embody quotidian masculinity. They could have been anybody. Automatic Double removes these baseball players from the context of an unassuming baseball card, and they can be read and viewed in a number of ways. The men appear one way to the world at large, but identity is built up in a very visceral way. My mark making, choice of color, and modular approach to these works on paper illustrate the literal and metaphorical layers of these figures possess. The collision of text and portrait plays a significant role, representing my desire to occupy the same social space and privilege that these individuals do, along with the danger in doing so.
2015
automatic double: A batted ball in fair territory which bounces out of play (e.g. into the seats) entitles the batter and all runners on base to advance two bases but no further. This term is used by some commentators in lieu of ground rule double, which refers to ground rules in effect at each ballpark.
When I was ten years old, I was a bonafide baseball fanatic. I was obsessed with collecting baseball cards, and had a good sized collection in the late eighties and early nineties. I recently rediscovered this collection and took it back to St. Louis with me. Looking through the cards again, I noticed how awkward the actual photographs of these athletes were. I started making sketches of these players without any signifying team logos. The result were portraits of white cis-men (men who are born biologically male) who visually embody quotidian masculinity. They could have been anybody. Automatic Double removes these baseball players from the context of an unassuming baseball card, and they can be read and viewed in a number of ways. The men appear one way to the world at large, but identity is built up in a very visceral way. My mark making, choice of color, and modular approach to these works on paper illustrate the literal and metaphorical layers of these figures possess. The collision of text and portrait plays a significant role, representing my desire to occupy the same social space and privilege that these individuals do, along with the danger in doing so.
2015