victor solomon celebrates healing through basketball in south LA with his kintsugi court

victor solomon, founder of studio literally balling, shares an expressive public work ‘kintsugi court’ to illustrate basketball as a platform for unification and healing. through these isolating times brought on by the devastating pandemic, and now with this past weekend’s return of basketball — the artist explores the role of the sport as a unifying platform that inspires healing. solomon takes to south los angeles to realize this concept through continuous street art experiments with the anient japanese technique of kintsugi that celebrates the repair-work of a broken object, using gold pigment to embellish the memory of its cracks and broken seams. 

images by shafik kadi | @shafik

victor solomon of literally balling uses the technique of kintsugi, traditionally applied to ancient japanese pottery, to embellish the cracked courts of south los angeles. the artist elevates the space with gold-dusted opulence while maintaining the broken pavement and the roots of the fast-changing neighborhood. this method reminds visitors that basketball transcends class and remains universally accessible, even through such a polarized and uncertain time as 2020. victor solomon continues: ‘to celebrate the sport of basketball as a universally accessible, class-agnostic, race-indifferent platform — and its ability to bring people together to heal in this important moment, my team and I renovated a dilapidated court in south los angeles, filing it’s cracks with gold dusted resin inspired by the historic process.’

project info:

project title: kintsugi court

artist: victor solomon, founder of literally balling

location: south los angeles, california

photography: shafik kadi | @shafik