Action and Abstraction

SPORTS AND ARTISTIC CREATION may seem mutually exclusive—shaped by different worlds, responding to different stimuli. Yet both seek tangible expression for abstractions, though their methods of realization may be distinct. Or, they may not be . . .

One can get snared by the winning or the losing; by the narrow goal. But there exists a more fundamental level that transcends a single contest, that places each event in a broader scheme. This is sports. It is determined by a series of intangible concepts which are articulated purely by the body as it moves through a measured territory. Here analogy

print May 1980

Ree Morton

IT WAS A COLD DAY in New York for early June. Standing under the FDR Drive at the edge of the East River exaggerated the chill, but the weather only put a physical edge on the tingle of excitement that I was already feeling. For a few friends and I had come to that spot to see something which another friend had made. Ree Morton had secured a moored sailing ship at the South Street Seaport Museum and had transformed it into her own vessel. And, she had told us, we were a part of it. That was all we knew as we approached the pier. . . .

After passing some of the more spectacular ships, that looked