Gallery Text
Tennis is one of the sports that rejects a draw as the final resolution of a contest. To add their units, called “games”, it forces the opponents with the same score to continue the ball until one manages to score two consecutive points. This state of temporal parity is called “equals” or Deuce.
The tie is a moment in which the forces in tension are aligned, the moment before the collision. Deuce is a project by Miguel Monroy (Mexico City, 1975), planned according to the exhibition space of Alternating and Current. Consistent with his plastic exploration, Monroy interrupts the utilitarian function of a sophisticated gadget and provides it with a new meaning. Within the exhibition, a tennis coaching machine is confronted with the architecture of the gallery turning towards itself, induced by the artist to a state of provisional complacency. The staging activates a system in suggestive balance: the irresistible desire for autarky. This cycle of forces occurs as a product of Monroy’s refined audacity to redeem objects from their original tasks and vindicate their contingent nature. Finally, the possibility of a brief tie with our opponent grants the risk and opportunity to rethink a strategy. This is perhaps the most defining moment of the game, that of confrontation with oneself.
José Luis Cortez Santander
February 2010
related projects:
- Self-fulfilling prophecies
- Deuce