Fieldstudies

Field studies
2004
98 Drawings and ground plans sport fields, board games and child play, ink drawing on paper
150x560cm, growing

Western relations to nature have been characterized by mastery rather than co-existents.
In the field of sport this mind set is especially dominant, manifesting in the fact that our playing fields are anti-nature and have to be- according to the fact that modern competitive sport has to facilitate a near laboratory setting in which its uni- dimensionality can unfold itself under controlled conditions. Pure nature has too much variation, too much noise, so it all has to become mapped, planned and graphical within the sense to keep locked out the immeasurable, unknown and unknowable.
Generally, playing fields are wide expanses of grass, dirt or sand without many obstructions.
A playground is used for playing sports or games; a playing field further refers to any place or context within which competitive activity takes place. It is also used as a metaphorical term in economics as the term “leveled field”, a plateau on which no external interference affects the ability of the players to compete according to a set of established and agreed rules.
In my works I often counter-target this conformity with individualism- a clash of special designed spaces for specific purpose- versus un-manipulated urban/ nature settings and the human urge to reclaim its right to imaginary play and to claim its private space.
Within this working process my idea was to create a collection in which the boarders of established systems in pro sports activities and child play blend into each other and lead the spectator to loose its grip in process of differentiation. Kids game chalk drawings found on streets and parking lots, board games as well as ground plans of sporting field’s stretch into a master plan of human activity. There is no hierarchy in the placing, every game every sport begins with a line that divides, allocates and grows with the complexity of the play.
The work Field studies consists play concepts that have been originated for more than 4000 years. The more than five meter long drawing displays 98 fields and disappears into a thorax like paper dispenser that offer more space for future finds.