Carved wooden baseball bats [Louisville Slugger, Northern White Ash], chromed metal base plate.

Description

Enemy's Enemy: Monument to a Monument transforms a classic American Louisville Slugger baseball bat into a meditation on the unifying and divisive powers of religion and sport. The figure carved into the bat is a memorial to Thich Quảng Đức, a Buddhist monk who in 1963 performed self-immolation in protest against the repression of the Buddhist community by the South Vietnamese government. The act of self-sacrifice was widely televised and formed part of the mounting pressure on the Diệm government that led to its deposition later in the year. In addition, the commemorative monument, installed in a reunited Vietnam, appears highly incongruous given the communist state ideology's antipathy toward religion. This work illustrates how popular sports and organized religions can stir community loyalties, engendering solidarity and instigating conflict. Layered over the work's reference to a specific moment in Vietnamese history is an allusion to the Vietnam War as a whole, and to the US support that the South Vietnamese received during that conflict. The patented bat is manufactured by Hillerich & Bradsby, a company that in the 1940s produced rifle stocks for the US Army as part of the war effort. Yet the figure of the bodhisattva emanates serenity and acquiescence.

Description from "Vietnam in Transition, 1976–Present" Exhibition Catalog, 2023, p.43.