Manila Contemporary presents John Javellana’s first ever solo exhibition Home Court. As a respected photojournalist, Javellana has covered numerous Philippine based political events and natural disasters for news outlets all over the world. However, for his first exhibition, he turns his documentary focus on one of, if not the most beloved sports in the Philippines: basketball. Home Court goes into the heartlands of the country from the mountains of Sagada to the rebel camps of Mindanao, from the rural to the urban, to present an intimate photo essay of people and place. Frame worked around the obscure, unlikely and everyday places where basketball courts are located, Javellana’s reveals the unique qualities of the Filipino spirit through a passion for sport.

Basketball is a national obsession. Enjoyed widely by people of all ages, it continues to shape cultural identity and nurture community by uniting people through the simple act of competition. Shot as a personal project, whilst on location during his many assignments as a photojournalist, Javellana has chosen various grass roots locations to observe the dynamics of play and the pragmatics of daily life. His images show how basketball courts are inserted into the everyday and survive or are destroyed by time and disaster. This relationship expresses our human connection to landscape and how rituals of leisure and our immediate surroundings shape who we are. But rather than as a straightforward interpretation of hardship, Home Court represents how landscape is activated and claimed by a simple hoop and backboard. This basic structure then acts as a monument to a type of Philippine resourcefulness, pride and endurance, of shared pleasures regardless of economic circumstances or natural devastation.

Intuitively framed and composed, each photograph not only tells a story but shares the seductive formalism of photography itself through monochrome, color, geometry and atmosphere. This is the potential of the ‘documentary art’, of how images can function across fine art and social issues to sensitively explore the nuances of the human condition.

Home Court is an ongoing series that will continue to evolve over time.

-Manila Contemporary

Image: © John Javellana