Political Art, Straight to the Heart

Click through the 12 photographs taken by Jessica Hilltout in today’s online Art & Design section of The New York Times, and see what you think. The Belgian-born photographer spent several months before the World Cup games traveling around Africa snapping images of dirt-poor Africans who are passionate lovers of soccer, along with their makeshift soccer fields and soccer equipment. The pictures reveal what human ingenuity, when coupled with a deep desire to play soccer, can come up with, and are currently on display in galleries in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Brussels.

Look particularly closely at the pictures of the different variations of soccer balls. They’re cobbled together from nothing but detritus. It looks like the materials used include everything from leftover plastic and twine, to burlap, rocks, and mud. The results yield honest and handsome-looking balls that look like what many MFA students wish their art could look like. While not able to earn an official seal of approval from FIFA, these balls serve their purpose as well as any regulation soccer ball.

Were the homemade soccer balls to be gathered together and then carefully placed around the floor of a clean, well-lighted, white-walled gallery, they would result in a beautiful exhibition with a powerful political message going straight to the heart. Curators and artists everywhere, forget about Bravo TV’s “Work of Art.” Instead, borrow these balls and put them on display for the whole world to see.