Monday, October 25, 2010

when a bat seems like sculpture...

gibson'sbat

"If you look at the handle on the end of that bat, there's an 'x' because it was a reject... The cleat marks at the head of the bat where I hit my shoes, there's indentations at the beginning of the bat. At the end of the bat, it was so deep, there's really deep indentations, the red ink from the foul balls I hit is on it. You can actually see the spot where I made contact with the ball..."

kirk gibson's poetically detailed description of the bat he used to hit one of the greatest home runs in dodger history. the bat has been in storage since around the time he hit the home run back in 1988. while most people are up in arms that he is selling the bat and not giving it to the hall of fame, well, its his bat, and he should certainly be able to do as he pleases with it...

nonetheless, i found his description of the bat's condition to be beautiful, suggesting that some enterprising print-maker should do a rubbing of it.

gibson's articulation of all of the flaws, including color, sort of suggests an object in line with artists like david nash or david ireland... hand tooled responses to patina... i hope the auction that is selling the bat will produce a document with some nice clear photos of all its flaws...

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Christine White said...

i like the idea that this 'art-making' is secondary to the activity that brought it about - that really is the true art isn't it? rather than those of us who think we are about to 'make a piece of art'. this is a beautiful piece - the result of unconscious activity - of truly interacting with the material...now...how to apply this to sound-making...thanks for sharing this.

2:47 AM  
Blogger * said...

Yes, a beautiful description of all things, a bat. Proves that poetry exists in every single thing, it only takes the poet/observer/listener to seek it.

10:53 AM  

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