NIKE LeBron James Art Collaboration
LEBRON JAMES. My first Nike collaboration. Working with two established local Hong Kong Artists. To say this year has been awesome might possibly be an understatement.
The sculpture was revealed at a private event on the 5th August 2017 in Hong Kong. We all had a chat with LBJ who loved the work and was impressed it only took all three of us less than a month to complete. The sculpture itself is around 2m tall, uses 50 pairs of Soldier 11s and consists of around 600-650 individually wrapped balls. In the heart of the sculpture, was a space to fit a basketball. LBJ completed our sculpture by placing the ball in the middle. It was such an incredible moment to witness one of the greatest basketball icons of our time complete your sculpture. It will be a moment I will not soon forget.
When I was approached by Nike at the end of July about collaborating on a project in conjunction with LBJ's asia tour, I was incredibly excited. The project brief was to create something using the Solider 11 sneaker with two other artists - Tat and Vi from Graphic Airlines. I have never collaborated on an art project with someone else but luckily Tat and Vi were really awesome and the project went very smoothly.
The opportunity was quite amazing because the project brief allowed us to really pitch any idea we wanted. Ultimately after a few days of discussion, we went with my idea to make a Soldier figure from deconstructed Solider 11 sneakers. Visually it would tie in with the name of the sneaker and also construction of the sculpture would be easier for all three of us, in terms of collaborative effort. Using balls in various sizes wrapped in the material has not been done before and the novelty factor would stand out amongst other great sneaker art.
CONCEPT
The soldier spends his life mentally and physically preparing for the field. He never goes into battle unprepared. Similarly, a basketball player spends hours working on his technique and skills. Every jump, shot, sprint, run and throw is done in order to make those game-defining moments on court.
Additionally, a ball as an object is defined as a spherical object made up of complex planes to a point of infinity. On a more basic level, the spheres directly reference a basketball. On a deeper level, the concept of infinity ties into the idea that no matter how good you are, the requirement to remain at the top of your game demands an infinite number of hours of dedication and hard work in order to perform at the very highest level.
IN DETAIL
BEHIND THE SCENES
