Toothless, artist-made pitching machine (steel, aluminum, rubber, anti-corrosive paint, servo motor, microcontroller, sticker), 3-channel audio composition (21:17 min), stadium horn speakers, sugar glass, baseball infield gravel, steel, pine, ash, thumbtacks, silicone rubber, acrylic resin, piano keyboard, oxford shoes, MDF, vinyl, aluminum cans, sunflower seed shells, BIG LEAGUE CHEW bubble gum, ceramic, practice baseballs, foam rubber, graphite, pen and colored pencil on paper, printed pamphlets
Toothless is an installation that tells ten stories about four people getting hit in the face – with (very) varying effects.
Combining sculptural objects and an audio narrative, Toothless tells how a baseball busts a hole through a boy’s grin, breaking open a hometown myth and creating a crack through which a tooth, a manhole cover, a sunken piano, a wad of chewing gum, a pepper-spray bullet, a wooden bat, a pile of sunflower seeds, a reporter’s shoe, a political chant and a provisional government flow. Sports grifters turned nation builders - the farce of a ‘less-lethal’ projectile - spaces made permeable, perforated by performative and political violence. These characters switch places with one another, are melted down and formed again, sadly hit their targets or sadly miss them, dissolve into silt or pile up outside the dugout. A riot, a demonstration, a wrestling match.
Script Editor: Julia Bosson
Sound Editor (Rijksakademie Open): Kim Nucci
photos by Beeldsmits