Sports Show

In the time it took for Pari to form and to negotiate our lease, a whole stadium was built
down the road. On Friday and Saturday nights, there’s a steady pilgrimage of red and
black, or blue and gold down O’Connell Street. With apologies (and greetings!) to these
crowds of Bankwest Stadium devotees, the artists in Sports Show aren’t necessarily
obsessed with sport itself – although some definitely are. They draw on sport as a way
to tell stories about what it means to be a human interacting with other humans in the
world.

Sport can be synonymous with some of the most aspirational human qualities: peak
achievement, endurance, strength – and collaboration. People come together, wear their
colours and get swept up in the passion of a common goal. Sport can also go hand in
hand with conflict, violence, discrimination, corruption and abuse. Like those who play
it, sport is complex and at times contradictory, and this is why we’re drawn to it. It’s
joyful and empowering, messy and political, as the works in this show attest.