When Austin Bell first visited Hong Kong in 2017, he was struck by the chromatic vibrancy of its public basketball courts. Coming from the U.S., where these surfaces are often the neutral and uninteresting textures of asphalt and other materials, he was compelled to document the range of vivid color combinations, especially within the context of high-rise neighborhoods and urban infrastructure.

Bell set out to capture 2,549 outdoor basketball courts around Hong Kong—every single one there is in the region. The resulting series, SHOOTING HOOPS, not only highlights the physical courts but conveys a unique portrait of the region and the spaces where people can mingle. “To me, basketball courts are one of the most interesting subjects for aerial photography because they look so different from above than the ground,” Bell tells Colossal. “Their flatness and geometric design become an almost extraterrestrial tableau—like concrete crop
circles.”

For such a densely populated place, Bell’s images are often devoid of people, giving the colorful scenes a subtle ghostly feel. Looking closely, though, you can often see passersby out and about, illustrating the abiding popularity of these urban recreation parks. “One of the newest ones is at a playground called Chung Sing, which is so named for the sound a bell makes, so the designers stylized the surrounding area with audio waveforms,” Bell says.

Bell captured the photos in 2019, trawling Google Maps’ satellite imagery and using his drone to explore spaces between buildings and trees. Over the course of 140 days of shooting during multiple visits, he took more than 40,000 photos. He often photographed from dawn to dusk, and it wasn’t unusual for him to shoot upwards of 100 courts in a day. Once, he meticulously planned a route and captured a mind-boggling 475 courts in a single day.

“The insane became mundane,” Bell says in a statement. “I had become an obsessive completist, unable to rest until I found every court in the city. My obsession was fueled by two desires: to show an unseen perspective of Hong Kong and to fully explore a city that I feel so captivated by.”

Find more on Bell’s Instagram, and purchase the photo book from his webshop.

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A bold new structure has appeared in Cary Park in Cary, North Carolina: the latest sculptural pavilion by Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY. The work is titled “L’Ile Folie,” which nods to the architectural tradition of the folly, a landscape feature that was all the rage with wealthy estate owners in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Often nostalgic and resembling ruined miniature castles or bucolic village buildings, follies were generally non-functional and conceived as pure decoration. Fornes, however, reimagines this practice with an eye toward the future rather than the past. The pavilion “gives this tradition a contemporary meaning: memorable, playful, and slightly surreal,” says a statement.

Fornes is known for creating high-tech structures made from thousands of individual facets, blurring the distinction between architecture and sculpture. Situated along a boardwalk and perched over a pond, the gleaming white pavilion invites visitors to pause and appreciate their natural surroundings from a contemporary landmark.

“Constructed from ultra-thin folded aluminum panels, each piece is digitally fabricated and precisely riveted into place,” says a statement. “There is no hidden frame; the skin is the structure. Thousands of perforations filter sunlight into delicate patterns, turning the canopy into an ever-changing atmosphere of shadow and shimmer.”

See more on THEVERYMANY’s Instagram and Vimeo.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Marc Fornes’ New Sculptural Pavilion Reimagines the Architectural Folly appeared first on Colossal.