OVULATOR Performance
During the 1996-97 baseball season I staged Ovulator performances in several stadiums in the greater NYC area – including Yankee, Shea, Tri-boro and Meadowlands stadiums – freely handing out “Ovulator Series I” trading cards to fans, staff and vendors alike. Viewers were invited to reflect upon the baseball card and engage with me about whatever the exchange or cards brought to mind.
Re-imagining the dance of gender in sports, the Ovulator project engages the audience to wonder how the presence and/or absence of female bodies in the stadium may shape expectations, fantasies and individual lives. Sports personalities are phantoms of desire whose power is but partial and potential until animated by players and audience alike. I materialize this invisible dynamic by creating imaginary players, each with its signifying baseball card. The baseball card is both an artifact and invitation to question what is seen, and what is possible. I toss iconic uniforms of gender high into the air above empty seats, then step back to photograph their billowing form as the slips twist, turn, rise and fall. Narratives on the back of each card weave hybrid tales of fantasy and fact to expose divisions of labor, privilege and power. Like dreams, the wispy garment reveals the presence of something out of place – an enigma whose meaning emerges through association and the viewer’s imagination.
The Ovulator Series project was installed at the Whitney Museum of American Art, ISP Exhibition, 1997.
The project includes performance, artifacts, photographs and video:
- Ovulator Series I Trading Cards: 6 lithograph cards (limited ed. box set of 250)
- Ovulator Team Baseball Caps (6 embroidered caps, unique, 1/1)
- “Whole Different Ballgame” – 7 min video
More Information
To learn more about this and other projects, or to request proposals for public or private commissions, please contact Linda Cummings Studio.