: Between Nonchalant & Relaxed
/ 2020/ Maple St. Construct
/ Omaha, Nebraska
from: MSC
>>Catalog
A roar, a tremble begins to ripple through the crowd. A harmony of tension and anxiety looms over the haze of 50,000 plus, fear and perspiration heat the surface of the skin with unwanted expectations of waiting for another year. Another year of talks about potential trades, heightened rumors of contract extensions, and incessive discussions about much needed coaching adjustments. Another year of weekend garage banter and one too many trips to the water cooler for exchanging fantasy stats. Thought of this only heightens the anticipation for victory or loss. However, on the field the pulse is calm, not thinking about yesterday and forgetting about tomorrow. The unrelentless practice, the 4:00 am wakeup calls for gym, the blisters, the constant internal defeat, the never-ending rage from the strength and conditioning coach, the offseason surgeries, the daily maintenance of tape, ice, ibuprofen, and cortisone shots to numb the pain. The wins, the losses, the biased critiques from media analysts, the continuous pressure from front office management, and the daily text messages from an agent reminding you of “off-field” commitments. A cycle that repeats day in and day out, no room for off-days, no room for smoke breaks, no room for weekend garage banter as the clock is ticking. A clock that tells you how much time you have left…and it is not much. Too leave it all out there on the field and not just yesterday, but today, and tomorrow, and the next, and the day after that, until that clock hits zero and you are not remembered for the unseen, you are not remembered for your constant confrontation with discomfort. Instead, you are remembered for the very moment of leaving that abstraction on the field.
The crowd roars louder, with even higher expectations for instant gratification, however, your pulse is still calm, your focus never clearer as if you have done it before, three seconds away…almost a minute for the next second to pass, the collective roar of noise deafens the atmosphere, one more second and this whole time you are in a space BETWEEN NONCHALANT AND RELAXED...
Maple St. Construct is pleased to exhibit two athletes of abstraction. One who weighs in from the Cornhusker state, “The Little Italy Stitcher”, “The Midwestern Closer”, “The Benson Dribbler”, “The North Omaha Cross-Over”, Mr. Thomas Prinz. And his West Coast counterpart, “The Surfside Technician”, “The Kombucha Draftsman”, “The Anacapa Abstractor”, “The Spray Paint Masker”, “The Endless Summer Kid”, Mr. Robin Donaldson. Two athletes, who have been playing the field of abstraction for over four decades, have come together for one exhibition, one moment, that collages a combined eighty years of “West Coast Swag” with “Midwestern Soul”. An exhibition of two artists approaching their prime, a “Show and Go”, a “Daytime Doubleheader”, a “Midsummer Classic” set within a pandemic that cannot slow down these “Titans of Cool”. BETWEEN NONCHALANT AND RELAXED is an exhibition of making the game look easy, it is about stepping into the end zone like you have done it before, it is a reminder of why we do this, a meeting of play and grit with confidence against all odds. The underdog is no longer waiting their turn, because we are no longer “talking about practice”, we are talking about “The Game.”
