Title:
Punch (Installation view The Ring Squared, Boxing in Contemporary Art
Walker Art Center, 2003-2004, curator Kemi Ilesanmi)

Description:
For Punch, a hanging set of torn boxing gloves with 2 speakers, one laced into the palm, I reviewed my history watching boxers on television and listening to Ali’s fights on the radio. I wanted to sidestep nostalgia for a more critical reconsideration. The audio recreates the scenario of the trauma and collision of object and body, audience and athlete, and the public spectacle of boxing. The gloves in the work, were rescued at the closing of one of the last remaining boxing gyms in my old working class neighborhood of Saint Paul, Glancey’s Gym. The old gloves were chosen to place the work somewhere to reference the movement they represent, the punch. Sound animated the gloves to bring the viewer into the spectacle of movement inside the ring and the sound of leather against the body. For the work sounds were collaged using a computer program and recorded onto a CD for playback inside the palm of the glove. Audio was recorded at: golden gloves matches at reservation casinos in Minnesota, interviews with family members who trained with boxing gloves to learn self protection for the tough neighborhood we grew up in, matches held at Glancey’s Gym where young boxers who had hopes to make it big would train, and radio broadcasts of professional matches from the past. I also recorded sound with a microphone of the gloves hitting my own body as the leather rubbed against the skin of my stomach.

Materials:
Worn leather boxing gloves, 1 mono speaker set inside the glove laces, one mono speaker with a built in amplfier set inside gloves, CD player, brushed metal hook to hang gloves. Audio 4:00 minute CD aiff format.

Year:
2003

Location:
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA