This is my 2009 proposal for tracking the movement of a boxer

Round 1
The archetype of a boxing fan is some hardboiled, primitive blood lusting guy, unleashing abundant jabs of high testosterone into the asphyxiated atmosphere of brimming roars of cheering and delirious praises that bounce from one end of the arena to the other, interweaving with other chanting fellow boxing fanatics.
But that description only goes so far.

Round 2
Into this guild of two hard-fisting guardians protecting their fortress of universal male exclusivity from the poisonous onslaught of a woman’s inquisitiveness, a new perspective awoke against this background of perennial hostility once females began to embrace this sport, and once I began to turn the sweet science into works of art. ………

Round 3
Five years studying art, with a ten year fascination with boxing, you’d think I’d pack my bags and move onto another theme or interest. But I believe when one is accidentally exposed to something so amazing that has been around for thousands of years; it’ll shade their perspective forever. Someone will need to check me into rehab to amputate this fascination off me.

Round 4
I view boxing as an interpretation for my subject of suppression by constant internal collisions between my culture, as well as what religion I was born into, what I’ve been indoctrinated into following and if in fact, maybe this state of confusion is just a phase.


Round 5
By drawing or painting boxing, it’s not just a mechanism to express personal freedom from my suppressed lifestyle; it cultivates the highest virtues from the very first stroke of the brush onto the naked, isolated surface. It gives me courage in the face of adversity, a sense of self–control, mental and physical strength, endurance, stoic acceptance of pain and suffering, self-reliance and supreme sense of justice.
When I paint the theme of boxing, it kind of becomes a conversation for me; when I spar on the canvas or paper, a dialogue begins to unravel as I begin to let go of confusions, my insecurities, inadequate self image and thus the evolution of the emancipation begins.

Round 6
I’ve employed an approach that I’ve exercised in establishing a few of my artworks these past few years. I first gained this approach by looking a few inspiring works of Brett Whiteley, Francis Bacon, Henry Matisse and a few from William De Kooning. Primarily on Whiteley and Bacon, I was intrigued by their illustration of the human figure throughout their drawings and paintings.
They both elongated their figures with Bacon in particular applying severe distortion.
The elongation and distortion faintly reminds me of a punch when it strikes the opponent in the face. That raw moment when the blow meets the face as the anatomy is skinned into all distorted facial expressions.

Round 7
For too long I’ve relied on the 2D surface of boxing photographs and television as the blueprint to produce my work. I felt that I needed to have a more intimate, 3D familiarity with this sport by actually entering into the arena and observed how it’s operated.
The fight between Anthony Mundine and Nader Hamdan back in 2007 was the first boxing bout I experienced. Being merely 3 meters away from the boxing ring, watching all the undercards fight in the lead up to the biggest fight of the night was surreal. It certainly altered my perception of boxing and gave me a new perspective work with.

Round 8
Going to the Mudine VS Hamdan match allowed me to study each of the undercards competing that evening. I felt that their bodies were the container of one's entire life experience and their movement was a language that expressed and revealed their deepest struggles and creative potentials.
There was much more to observe and sense as I “watched” these movements. I was paying attention to the relation between high and low muscle tone; the presence and degree of tension and relaxation, contraction and release, carefully following the body parts in motion. I’d notice the parts of the body engaged in movement activity and those that were not, where in the body the initiation of movement occurs, and how other parts of the body follow through or respond by supporting or resisting. I’d study their posture and how the musculoskeletal system determines idiosyncratic patterns of movement.
I was also able to observe the use of the space within the boxing ring to articulate their movements in relationship to the immediate environment, and the entire geography of the arena. The boxers would move periphery, diagonal or sometimes, remain still in the centre of the ring. The organization of time through the speed and tempo of their shuffling, whether it’s fast, slow, or changing tempos, sustained or jerky and whether the boxer is able to make transitional shifts between qualities.

Round 9
For this semester, I plan to create a series of drawings tracking the movement of a boxer.
I don’t know if I’ll plan on a contemporary boxer or a classic figure, or whether I’ll track it in slow motion on the screen or track the entire boxing match as it pans out. I don’t know if I’ll track it live being situated within the audience, or maybe tracking both of the boxers instead of one. I could possibly even track a boxer undergoing his training regime. Ultimately, I want to be precise and meticulous with this tracking system, I want to study it at all camera angles and through the eyes of the audience. I want to expose for the outsiders looking into this sport the beauty and momentum boxing can illustrate and not just the violence it erupts.

Round 10
Tracking a boxer will give me an almost architectural approach to this project. It’ll require persistence and patience and total fixation towards movement ecology in boxing. It’ll only further me into my fascination with this sport and most probably extend my delivery of it throughout my art practice in years to come. ………………………………