the @jonpaulsballs experience
September 23, 2022 - October 29, 2022
Monaco is pleased to present the jon-pauls balls experience, a solo exhibition of various footballs and video work by artist Jon-Paul Wheatley (St. Louis, Missouri), organized by Monaco member Marina May.
Please join us for an opening reception Friday September 23, 2022 from 6 to 9 p.m with viewings available on Saturdays from 12 to 4 p.m. and by appointment.
For all inquiries and appointments please contact: Marina May at m.may@wustl.edu; IG: @marinamae_west, or Monaco at info@monacomonaco.us
BIO
Jon-Paul Wheatley is a British ball maker, but can’t tell you why. One day in lockdown, he made a hacky-sack sized football (soccer ball for Americans) out of leather. It was terrible. He was obsessed. He made another, then another, and before he knew it, his life was consumed by balls.
Functioning as various tests of logic, each ball becomes a problem with a unique set of parameters: material, construction constraints, performance, etc. ultimately does it work?
Jon-Paul’s self-taught practice is under constant revision, as he learns new techniques, revises old methodology, and improvises new solutions tailored to address the particular constraints of each ball. The complexity, intensity, and narrative informing the ball-making process has evolved significantly – from the wonky “hacky-sack” origin to elaborate one-of-one creations.
With materials grafted from a firehose pipe to the iconic Adidas Predator boot to the St. Louis classic Nike Air Force Ones, Wheatley hand-stitches individual cells into intricate ball constructions documenting the entire process.
These videos are edited and released as TikToks and Instagram reels which have received millions of views across the internet. Most recently, Jon-Paul has been flying around the world to collaborate with adidas, FIFA, and the MLS.
He currently lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri.
instagram & tiktok: @jonpaulsballs
website: jonw.com/footballs
For all inquiries and appointments please contact: Marina May at m.may@wustl.edu; IG: @marinamae_west, or Monaco at info@monacomonaco.us
behind the @jonpaulsballs experience
Jon-Paul’s balls are self-aware, not self-important. They’re fun. Just for fun. These extraordinarily humble balls exist with an honesty and cheekiness that strips the works of ego – which tends to derail the experience of conceptual art.
Their existence is antithetical to consumerism: Not for sale, extraordinarily labor intensive, and entirely unsuitable for mass production. Jon-Paul’s Balls obscure neat classification, blurring form and function in the way of a Wassily chair. Conceptually improbable, their construction is informed by meticulous attention to detail rendered with artisan techniques, but they also function. They are beautiful in their object-ness while approachable, familiar, even nostalgic. Nearly everyone on earth has seen a football.**
This is due in large part to Jon-Paul – he is an honest-maker. The balls and subsequent videos wouldn’t work otherwise. The scientifically and algorithmically digestible short format content encapsulates the essences of the ball, illustrating his trials and his errors as the viewer joins Jon-Paul on a quest -- from sourcing the materials to the first-kick.
Jon-Paul's voice-over narration assumes personal responsibility over his entire process. He is forthright about his growth, admitting which balls are more successful and why, what he does and does not know, and his unabashed excitement about tackling the challenge or a new concept.
Despite the quality of the video and the seamless sleekness of its formatting, it’s difficult to accurately perceive the beauty of the balls (I know) through a screen. In person, the intricacy of the sculptural construction, the various textures of the source material, the sheer craftsmanship of the saddle-stitched seams expose their preciosity.
Put very simply, the @jonpaulsballs experience brings both the balls and videos into the “real” world of the gallery to remind the viewer that you can make something for the hell of it and you’re allowed to have fun - just because.
From the Sisyphean task of perfecting an imperfectible object, to the compulsion to add new constraints, to the earnestness of putting an inordinate amount of care into consecrating a commercially ubiquitous sporting-good - the @jonpaulsballs experience asks “Why the hell not?”
written by show-organizer Marina May
IG: @marinamae_west
**Writer’s Note: American soccer ball - In a conversation with Mr. @jonpaulsballs himself during the installation of the show, I kept fumbling (ha-ha) with soccer ball vs. football and asked his preference.
His response “What does your heart tell you? Is it a football or is it a soccer ball?”
In the days since, my heart has settled on football, as the question resurfaced a memory. As I recall it, a five-year-old me took my turn in goal at Olivette Soccer League. From the net, I closely tracked a forward dribbling towards me from midfield. As the ball approached, I became increasingly mesmerized with how the black and white blurred between the feet of my opponent.
Then, it hit me… Why did Americans call a no-contact sport played with your feet “Soccer,” but decide that a nearly exclusive hand ball-handling activity should be named “Football” ???
Much to my coach’s chagrin, this internal dialogue caused me to entirely space out. I was too busy parsing out the semantics to remember to protect the goal. And that was the end of my footballing career.**
For all inquiries and appointments please contact: Marina May at m.may@wustl.edu; IG: @marinamae_west, or Monaco at info@monacomonaco.us
Exhibition documentation generously provided by Kalaija Mallery IG: @goodartdoc