Material: Zinc sheet, powder-coated, seat ball

Golf, foot, hand, tennis, field hockey, medical, gymnastics and sitting balls. The latter is what it’s all about. Marketing strategists have managed to coax people into trying to keep their balance on wobbly balls while typing. The “Hygge” trend even wants the –often sticky –orbs to be covered in soft, tasteful fabrics. The balls generally come in subdued colors: beige, light grey, olive. When plans were made to build a large, mobile brother for my emergency ball cabinet such balls were an obvious choice. The idea was to bring them to those places where they were needed. Where are balls needed? Where does the greatest degree of boredom reign? Which place is without humor? Which space is far removed from aesthetics and philosophy? When a cardboard ball cabinet model made of cardboard was scaled up to the size of a ball with a diameter of 55 centimeters, I noticed that it had similarities with a washing machine. This led me to a launderette. Nobody likes to go to such places. As they lack any and all of the kinds ofcommodities people appreciate, they also provide the perfect environment for the large emergency ball cabinet –and even more so as it blends in perfectly with the machines.

During one of my actions in a Frankfurt launderette the operator called in via loudspeaker from an unknown location, having followed the goings-on in the laundromat via webcam. He threatened to chase me and my balls out of his realm of cleanliness. All I had wanted to do was offer a game, entertain those waiting for their laundry, and document the whole thing using the picture sequence setting of my digital camera. My aim was to turn the photos into a flip book. Thankfully the flip book photos were completed just before I got thrown out. Two playful boys were the protagonists. I had to produce the flip book with a rotating washing machine drum in a different launderette.