Plain Sight

Samuel Levi Jones critically examines social power structures by taking apart and rearranging materials drawn from varying disciplines, including encyclopedias, law and medical textbooks, and football equipment, into abstract compositions that are meant to expose their flawed narratives and question their authority. In Plain Sight, Jones explores the complex relationship between race and sports. The splayed, predominantly brown interiors of leather footballs evoke skin tones, reminding us that most NFL players are people of color. Jones, who played football in high school and college, has criticized the power of the NFL, which was a tax-exempt entity until 2015, to curtail players’ political speech. He questions the enormous revenue generated by sports teams in cities and at universities, while local public schools struggle and student athletes assume the risk of long-term injury. The black threads that dangle from the work suggest human fragility and vulnerability and ask who is pulling the strings.