Devon Dikeou
The Hole: The Touch of Greatness
1994

The autographed baseball, form the artist's personal collection, Joe Di Maggio: The Touch of Greatness, is exhibited behind The Hole, and is left for the viewers to touch and scroll. In this way, I feel the ball will be presented sacrificially. Much like the blanket piece functions- as a reflection of personal worth sacrificed, the ball functions as both personal and asset worth, being given up. Both pieces employ transformation to create a new entity, but while the blanket was a sacrificial performance, it was always protected by the pillow. Not so with the baseball. There is no protective casing. The piece is left naked and bare for the audience to touch, scroll, demarcate, and in effect destroy- with their fingers- the internet worth of its object. Each time that piece is shown it will collect the finger prints of those wanting to touch greatness- some symbol of remarkable talent, or conversely non talent. By breaking the religious and taboo associations, the object as a collector's item, and as a piece of art in a gallery, becomes an item collecting as it is destroyed.