Black Magic (It’s Fantastic)

Using discarded objects, André Leon Gray crafts artworks that speak to spirituality, philosophy, and Black culture. In this mask-like sculpture, he comments on the desires for power and achievement that are a part of competitive sports. The mask’s head is crowned with a basketball framed by a street sweeper’s brush.Beneath it, rhinestones form a stylized basketball, its grip lines tipped like compass arrows suggesting movement, perhaps the quest for success. That design is inspired by drawings used in Haitian Vodou ceremonies to invoke spirits. On the mask’s headband hovers one of basketball’s most celebrated “spirits,” Michael Jordan.