Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project A review by Emma Weatherhead
Site Study for Maya Lin Park, RedBall Grand Rapids. Collage, ink, pencil. 40x60 cm. ©Kurt Perschke. redballproject.com
S
o, this guy simply travels around the world with a National Award from the Arts’ Public Art Network for The RedBall has made spectacular appearances in 15-foot inflatable red ball? And he gets paid to do the RedBall Project. countries all over the world, from Abu Dhabi to this? Really? These were my initial thoughts about Sydney, to Barcelona and Chicago. Flicking through the RedBall Project – half of me unconvinced, and half of There’s no questioning his penchant for hard work and photos of the ball in these different locations quickly me envious that I hadn’t thought of such a simplistic, easy his popularity with the art world and with the general becomes addictive, and I soon find myself considering idea myself. What is it about Kurt Perschke's RedBall public. The public are pivotal to the RedBall’s success. the possible empty spaces familiar to me that could do that has captivated the interest and enthusiasm of so Kurt explains that he does not intend the project to focus with being livened up by the red ball’s presence. Kurt many people across the world? Why choose a red ball, primarily on the ball as an object, but on the reactions chooses locations for the red ball more methodically; a and not a blue square, or any other impromptu colour/ that those around it display. ‘The project works as an potential site should have a good working relationship shape combination? Kurt obligingly explains that the invitation,’ Kurt says, or ‘a tool to invite people in and have between its architecture and the ball itself, and needs red ball concept was developed during to possess a ‘flow’ – a term he uses an exploration of negative spaces. He loosely to encompass both the energy had been studying an enormous concrete and the people that create it. block that descended into the earth, just outside of New York, and he wanted to The RedBall has just finished its first It’s definitely a basic idea, but that is the try and occupy the space underneath it tour of the UK, having travelled to in a way that emphasised ‘the weight and Torbay, Plymouth, Exeter, Weymouth joy of it: it’s fun, surprisingly humorous, fun of it’. In his preliminary sketches, he and London. This is the first proper tour drew a red ball in the space and showed of the RedBall, and I wonder, with the it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it is it to the curator, who loved it, and that’s previous prerequisites for a site in mind, how the RedBall Project was born. why Plymouth made the cut for this completely without pretention. international project. Kurt discloses It’s definitely a basic idea, but that is the that Plymouth appealed to him because joy of it: it’s fun, surprisingly humorous, of its ‘specific zones’; the way that it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it each area of Plymouth often provides is completely without pretention. a stark contrast to the next in terms of architecture, tone and street layout. When interviewing Kurt, it becomes clear that he is an experience, whatever that might be.’ By putting an alien an exceedingly nice and friendly guy. He was open and and undeniably attention-grabbing imposter into a place He first came to Plymouth in the winter, at a time willing to discuss his work, still full of vivacity and so familiar and well-trodden by us, the public, Kurt hopes when the seaside location, although aesthetically enthusiasm for a project which he has undoubtedly been to provide an opportunity to interact with surroundings inspiring, can have pretty unforgiving weather discussing repetitively for the last decade. Kurt, based that we would normally pass without a second thought. conditions. Kurt described himself, on his first breezy in New York, is a sculptor and architect by trade, but he He makes an insightful observation that ‘a lot of artists do trip to Plymouth, thankfully prepared with ‘all the also dabbles successfully in video, collage and ‘public work and stick it outside, but that doesn’t make it public. winter kit, looking slightly mad with a sketchbook and space’. Under his belt are commissions from prestigious I think to be in the public sphere, you really need to be in camera, walking around measuring things.’ He chose international arts institutions such as the Museum of the public imagination.’ This is an admirable statement, the Barbican’s Southside Street and W hite Lane, and Contemporary Art in Barcelona and the Contemporary and anything that provokes people to think more about the Hoe’s Madeira Street as RedBall locations. Museum of Art in St Louis. He recently received a the space in which they live deserves a thumbs up.
10
N om de Strip - Is sue 2 / Right H ere, Right N ow