ROBIN RHODE: EMPTY POCKETS

Empty Pockets centers its narrative on the game of pool or billiards played outside in the public realm, as is common in neighborhoods in South Africa.  Executed within the urban decay of Johannesburg’s periphery, Rhode references the Babylonian worldview of a flat earth that stands on pillars; the introduction of a spherical object (the pool balls) interrupts the firmament or horizon.  The pool player appears upside down (Rhode has subverted the original photographic image in post production), the balls appear to be floating in mid air.  The figure is more of a form than a character, functioning as a vector, with the pool table as the axis upon which the action itself is mapped out.  Within each frame, art historical sources come to mind – the Vitruvian Man, Mondrian’s minimalism — that are grounding but ultimately fleeting.