What first sparked my interest in engaging with the world of sport in my art was the sense of chaos that I saw in the floors of gyms and halls used for multiple different sports, where lines of different vibrant colors lie in a well-thought-out arrangement that nevertheless feels messy. If you consider one of the line colors, you can clearly trace identify the playing field of that color. I like to look at the floors with those lines as unconscious compositions with a balanced aesthetic accuracy. 

Of all athletic venues, the tennis court is the one that cannot leave me. I see it as complete in its symmetry consisting of ten squares divided into two. The lines on the floor define tennis and the rules of an individual sport provide structure and give the performer a sense that their imagination can be unleashed, within a delimited domain.

In the studio, I aim to harness the balanced precision of tennis and other sports. My work could be perceived as liberated from its origin, as it doesn’t cite sports directly, still I strive to capture the dynamic rules and vibrant lines of sport in my paintings, where detail holds paramount importance.

My paintings are created in the same dimensions as the tennis court, measuring 23.77 x 10.97 meters. I use nine black acrylic paints which I hold straight out of the tube. These are examples of the rules that are presented in my essay “Den praktiska handboken.” I wrote it as a framework to provide guidance for my own work, and consider it the ultimate authority on matters of faith and practice in my process; following these rules allows me to meditate on the capacity of my own decisions.

Photographs from the exhibition. Photos by Jean-Baptiste Béranger.