Jesper Nordahl: Cricket

Jesper Nordahl’s “Cricket” is a series of investigations concerning cricket, as an indirect expression of political action in a global arena. It is a process-implemented project and Index presents a first instalment: Jesper Nordahl’s interview with Zimbabwean cricketer Henry Olonga, recorded in Maidstone, England, in August 2003. Henry Olonga went into exile after demonstrating against the Zimbabwe regime’s human rights violations, during the Cricket World Cup 2003, hosted in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The exhibition also contains text, photography and drawing. Jesper Nordahl was educated at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, 1995 – 2000, and lives and works in Stockholm.

The film “Cricket” (2003) was made with support from IASPIS. The exhibition is part of an ongoing collaboration between Index and the Multicultural Centre in Botkyrka.

For press images and other information, please contact Index.
The Index exhibition programme was curated by Andreas Gedin, Helena Holmberg, Mats Stjernstedt and Niklas Östholm.

“With his project ‘Cricket’, the artist Jesper Nordahl investigates one of the greatest sports in the world. Currently on display at Index is a filmed interview with the cricketer Henry Olonga from Zimbabwe, exhibited together with text and photography. Olonga, who belonged to Zimbabwe’s cricket national team, now lives in exile in England. During the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, Olonga staged a demonstration against the abuses perpetrated by the Mugabe regime. Olonga and a teammate, Andy Flower (who also now lives in exile in England), wore black armbands during Zimbabwe’s match against Namibia. A peaceful demonstration that in many ways resembled the protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, thirty-five years earlier, against how black people were treated in the United States. The strength of ‘Cricket’ is not in the artistic design. Nordahl rather acts as a digging journalist, who has taken on the task of exposing how a traditional ‘noble’ sport such as cricket has become a tumultuous place for political events on a global level. He also sheds light on how this three-hundred-year-old sport is shaped and deformed by both economic and media as well as political interests.”

Translated quote from DN, 2004-03-27, Lars O Ericsson. Read full text in Swedish.

“With his project ‘Cricket’, the artist Jesper Nordahl investigates one of the greatest sports in the world. Currently on display at Index is a filmed interview with the cricketer Henry Olonga from Zimbabwe, exhibited together with text and photography. Olonga, who belonged to Zimbabwe’s cricket national team, now lives in exile in England. During the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, Olonga staged a demonstration against the abuses perpetrated by the Mugabe regime. Olonga and a teammate, Andy Flower (who also now lives in exile in England), wore black armbands during Zimbabwe’s match against Namibia. A peaceful demonstration that in many ways resembled the protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, thirty-five years earlier, against how black people were treated in the United States. The strength of ‘Cricket’ is not in the artistic design. Nordahl rather acts as a digging journalist, who has taken on the task of exposing how a traditional ‘noble’ sport such as cricket has become a tumultuous place for political events on a global level. He also sheds light on how this three-hundred-year-old sport is shaped and deformed by both economic and media as well as political interests.”

Translated quote from DN, 2004-03-27, Lars O Ericsson. Read full text in Swedish.