Untitled (plot for dialogue)

2017

Vinyl flooring, net, netting, tennis balls, samovar, iced tea, scent and diffuser, human coaches

 

In Untitled (plot for dialogue), Raza responds to the architecture of the 16th century church by introducing flooring, lines, netting, racquets, iced jasmine tea, scent, and coaches for a tennis-like game. He repurposes the church, a place of messages from higher authorities, into a space of two-way exchange and recreation. Here he reorients tennis as a reflection on the importance of non-productive activities in a society focused on work. For Raza, the game serves as a method of absorbing energetic drives into symbolic but non-harmful practices. Visitors to Untitled (plot for dialogue) become more than spectators—practicing with the coaches, they inhabit their bodies in coordinated action. Players respond to each other through the medium of the ball and the plot of the court. The piece places the experience of play above purely visual appreciation, as the back-and-forth of tennis exchanges produces meditative beauty through actions never to be repeated.