The Art of Sport

Abstract

The spectacles such as sporting competitions and events and the mega spectacles of opening and closing ceremonies which were discussed in Chapter 5 are all part of the processes of display which characterise the Olympics and create its visibilities. Art is another display system and in the run-up to 2012 art as display took on a very different form from that which is most usually associated with art and sport. This chapter focuses upon a different set of processes from those that were the subject of Chapter 2, and develops those of Chapter 5, namely the processes that are involved in looking and spectatorship and at debates about representation. What happens and what is the relationship between looking in art and looking at sport and how is sport represented in art?