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Walton 342, Shaq 350
Speaking of basketball, even you non-sports fans have heard of Shaquille O'Neal, right? Well, did you know as a professional player he only makes about half of his free throws? You know freethrows, those shots when no one is guarding you.
Artist Lee Walton has given Shaq a run for his money with Lee Walton's 2004-2005 Free Throw Championship. At the beginning of the season, Walton began the contest with the Miami Heat's star player. Of course Shaq had no idea he was participating. Walton's site explains the rules; Walton would tally up the number of free throw attempts Shaq made in a game, then go to the local park and, using the same number of attempts, try to beat Shaq's score. Over the course of the season, videos of Walton's attempts (as well as amusing pre- and post- shot commentary from Walton) were posted on Walton's site with a running score over the course of the season. Shaq was so bad that Walton managed to stay ahead -- until snow fell in NYC, which seriously affected his game. It seems Walton was never able to recover from that deficit. However Shaq only beat Walton by 8 points over the whole season!
If you like this one, Walton is also known for his One Shot A Day project where he played 18 holes of golf by taking one swing each day. The full golf game took him over five months of daily visits to the course. The video from this project is equally hilarious.
Posted by Steve Lambert on 04/25/2005 | Permalink
Comments
Lee Walton is a genius.
Posted by: Mo Mo | Apr 29, 2005 2:15:56 PM
Nice idea ... but how is this art? Because the guy has an MFA and an exculpatory "About the Artist" section on his website?
Posted by: Michael S. | May 2, 2005 7:05:27 PM
I find the "What is and isn't art" question is pretty boring. It doesn't lead anywhere. The answer I use is 'art is whatever the artist puts a frame around - figuratively or literally'. (hey at least it's conclusive!) The better question is, is the art good?
Now if you're looking for reasons why what Walton is doing can be called art, there are those, But basically, that's a class in contemporary art appreciation, which I can't give here. Because he's getting across his ideas and message through performance and video, instead of painting and drawing, doesn't make it 'not art'. For more, check this out: http://sfmoma.org/MSoMA/ Some of the clips are actually really great. Especially the video about Rauschenberg's 'Erased DeKooning Drawing' which demonstrated the idea of an art work could be more important than it's physical manifestation.
Posted by: Steve Lambert | May 4, 2005 2:39:09 AM
