“Eyes became a very important motif because they represented this idea of power,” she says. “The eyes are the only features that they have. It’s something I want to bring attention to. It’s this idea of looking at, looking back. It’s the stare down.”
- Na Chainkua Reindorf speaking to Blake Gillespie from Sacred.
Read the essay here.
The public space on the banks of the Mississippi, which honours a Black skiff boat operator who saved 32 people from drowning, features work by Theaster Gates and James Little.
The Art Newspaper
25 September 2023
Hilarie M. Sheets
“A tree gives you fruit,” he says. “That fruit come back to you and you throw it again. That particular process of fertility, the program never ending. It’s to be aware, to be conscious, of what you do in your daily basis.”
- Alexandre Arrechea speaking to Blake Gillespie from Sacred.
Read the essay here.
"The community energy in the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven radiates a friendliness that is uncommon in America. The vibe was big and infectious. From the youth game to the open run, it was an all day bucket fest."
See the photo essay here.
“There’s something really sensory about it when you step on the court and you look on the ground, you feel that in your shoes and your soles,” [Kevin] Couliau tells SLAM. “It’s sort of a tribute to what we have under our feet for so many hours during our lives.”
SLAM Magazine
21 October 2022
Jared Ebanks
The on-the-courts mural was done as done done in honor of “Super” John Williamson, a New Haven-raised basketball legend, who got his start playing for Wilbur Cross High School before making it to the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA).
The New Haven Independent
13 June 2023
Abiba Biao
Edgar Heap of Birds loves basketball. The artist holds season tickets for his team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and attends every game with family, wearing custom jerseys with his Cheyenne name, Hock E Aye Vi.
Artsy
14 December 2022
Claire Voon
Photographer and public historian, Sola Olosunde, captures the final weekend of Edgar Heap of Birds' Native Hosts installation at Murray Park, 11th St. & 45th Ave., Long Island City, NY 11101, on October 30, 2022.
See the photo essay here.
The editors of “Common Practice: Basketball & Contemporary Art,” a book published last year, tracked basketball-related art as far back as 1913 in a lithograph called “Basket Ball Girl.”
The New York Times
12 June 2022
Andrew Keh
[Common Practice: Basketball & Contemporary Art] brings together the works of 250 artists, among them Richard Avedon, Salvador Dalí, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, to offer an inclusive view of the sport from the modern lens.
Huck Magazine
19th May 2021
Miss Rosen
Blake Gillespie, journalist, photographer, and writer at Sacred Hoops, visits Faith Ringgold's court at St.Nicholas Park in Harlem and helps Project Backboard renovate a court with artist Andrea Bergart at McCaffrey Playground, in New York City.
See the photos and read the essay here.