Long Shot

Long Shot (2009) is emblematic of the artist’s interest in how transformations of space—often altered through deceptively simple means—affect us. The medieval-looking wooden cart filled with bright inflatable balls, the digital photograph and short video, are the props, artifacts, and documents from the site-specific installation.

Long Shot occurred as a performance and installation. The opening reception for the work was the performance. Two teams played a pick-up basketball game to five points: the game took over twenty minutes to complete. The physical installation consists of two over-sized basketball backboards and rims that have been affixed to two 25’ rigger poles located on the grounds of The Lot—a small pocket park and transit stop located three blocks from Artspace at the corner of Chapel and Orange Streets. Made from weathered two-by-fours, found and soldered rebar, and rope, Lamson’s homespun backboards are 2.5 times the size of a regulation size board. At The Lot, Lamson installed each of the backboards onto opposing two of the opposing rigger poles, creating a makeshift basketball court in the process. Donated basketballs were available at the gallery for anyone to use. The act of playing basketball became exceedingly hard, the shorter court and increased elevation of the hoop required double the effort to score. By exaggerating the scale of the hoops, Lamson alters the physics of the game, in turn, bringing new awareness to our own physical limitations.