Clarence Philbrick
Gunslinger of the Corner Three Sentinel, 2023
Rubber basketball, carbon-steel catcher's mask, shoes, cap-guns, baseball glove, yarn, and pine tar
18 x 16 x 10"

Asrtist Statement
Can be used for display or ritual.

Sentinels served various purposes, often equally invested in moving a team closer to championships as in helping athletes and fans deal with losses, psychological pain, and grief. These idols were created to represent supernatural beings and harness their uncanny powers. They were strategically placed in lockers, homes, sports bars, training facilities, or around the stadium, field, or court. Some guarded athletes and, in turn, teams and entire cities, from injuries and psychological trappings such as slumps, the yips, performance anxiety, or Steve Sax Syndrome. Others were designed to invite in flow-state, irrational confidence, unified swagger, or communal support.

This particular sentinel, as its name suggests, was/is/can be used to invite offensive fire power into ones life through confidence and mantras like "just let it go".

Artist Bio
Clarence Philbrick is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges visual arts, social practice, and relational research. His work investigates the transformative power of community, cultural dimensions of sports and play, and disassembling harmful patriarchal norms. Through ritual objects and social projects, Philbrick explores the violence and humor intertwined in dominant versions of masculinity.

Since graduating from Vassar College (BA) and The University of New Mexico (MFA), Philbrick has engaged with object making and a series of performance-based works, embodying themes of myth making, ritual, collective effort, play, and healing. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and his participatory projects have been featured by BBC, New Yorker Magazine, WHYY/NPR, Playboy, HuffPost, and Ethiopian TV.

thestarling.org