"The conversations I was interested in were about community, fluidity, about a merchant dynamic, and the details that point to a genus of change." – MARK BRADFORD
Mark Bradford was born and raised in south Los Angeles, in a neighbourhood that experienced a gradual but seismic change in social and cultural demographics. Revered for drawing inspiration from the environment around him, Bradford continually engages with his surroundings. Paper is, perhaps, the most important medium for Bradford. He sees it as a container of information, inseparable with memory, but at the same time, it is an unforgiving material. He scoured the streets of south Los Angeles. for fragments of newspaper, magazines, and posters, creating monumental collages and installations.
This sculpture, taking the shape of soccer balls, is Bradford’s commentary on the social and cultural issues that pervaded his own surroundings. Beyond the superficial appearance and title, Soccer Ball Bag 1 scrutinises the complex structures of urban culture and highlights the intricate social undercurrents. The soccer balls embody deliberate constructions and deconstructions, the theme transcending Bradford’s oeuvre, much like the communities in the neighbourhood. The individual balls, while similar in shape and sizes, were uniquely reassembled with estrange and separate pieces of paper, reuniting to form a cohesive whole. Slightly misshapen and rough, the soccer balls are charmingly flawed - much like the urban streets from which they came from. Finally, the net, mirroring the streets, holds all the balls together in one unifying bundle. The fragments of the past congregate to form the present and, eventually delineate the future.