Jeu de Paume

2014 – Stop motion animation, 2:52 minutes

Jeu de Paume depicts a tennis match set in 1907 at the Chateau de Fontainebleau in France. Set in a five-meter long miniature reproduction of the Fontainebleau court as it stood before its renovation in 1990, the video employs irregular editing rhythms, shots that stray from the central gameplay, and floating, dance-like camera movements that capture, along with the players’ action, the slanting angles of the architecture, the play of sunlight, and the visibility of the white ball against the dark court. Acknowledging that one’s concentration, both as player and spectator, ebbs and flows over the course of a match, the camera similarly responds to this idiosyncratic focus and the particularities of the environment to capture a shifting sense of human awareness.