RedBall Project rolls into town

Toledo residents got a dose of playtime this week as the RedBall Project rolled into town.

This summer, the Toledo Museum of Art hosted an interactive exhibition known as “Play Time,” which involved a collaborative exhibit with New York artist Kurt Perschke.

Perschke is the artist behind the big red ball that popped up all over Toledo this week. The ball inspired numerous selfies and even went viral when it escaped one of its locations downtown.

“The piece has been traveling since 2001 and it really moves through a city as a series of sites, and each site’s just a day,” Perschke said. “So, some people think of it as a sculpture but it’s kind of, in a way, more like a performance.”

Perschke described his red ball as a way for people to explore their own cities, and maybe even bring them to places that they have never seen before.

“Yesterday, in the middle of Side Cut Park we had over 3,000 people come by,” he said. “So, you know, it’s been really interesting to explore Toledo, and also have people who live here to be a part of that. I think all those things, like the imagination to see your own city is what really the piece is about.”

Since the ball arrived in Toledo on Aug. 14, it has visited the TMA Glass Pavilion, the Toledo Farmer’s Market, across from Fifth Third Field, the Toledo Edison Building, ProMedica Steam Plant, Roulet Jewelers, North Erie and Adams Streets, Boyd’s Retro Candy Store, Side Cut Metropark and ended back at the TMA on Aug. 23.

Pershcke said the museum invited him to be a part of the exhibition.

“I came out in the winter to look for all the sights and then we wanted, ideally, for it to be able to start and end at the museum. So we started at the glass pavilion, and now it’s our last day and we’re back.”

Perschke said the idea for this project came about from a piece he had done early on in his work.

“The art that I’m interested in is sculpture that can also move in the environment,” he said. “I got the opportunity to do a piece when I was in St. Louis, to do a sculptural piece responding to a sight, and RedBall kind of came out of that, actually.”

The ball is to travel with Perschke to Marsielle, France for its next performance, and has also visited Barcelona, Chicago and Abu Dhabi.