Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
One still moment. One player. No name. No basket. No ball. No contextual details. Just one nameless and unidentifiable icon on a blank court with an arena full of people watching him. To many, basketball is much more than a game. It is a religion. There are stories of triumph and stories of significant downfalls. There are godlike and divine figures that have created and shaped the game to where it is today. However, like religion, specifically Christianity, there are apocalyptic events. In Pfeiffer’s series Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he can depict what one might see if the world was indeed meeting its end.
Paul Pfeiffer is a contemporary artist who works within the mediums of digital photography, video, and installation in order to discuss human consciousness and the role that mass media and society have in shaping it. Originally born in Hawaii and raised in the Philippines, Pfeiffer states that sports were entirely foreign to him growing up as he was raised by religious missionaries and musicians who had little interest in sports. After moving from the Philippines to New York in the early 1990s, however, Pfeiffer’s interest and curiosity in sports grew as he was introduced to the world of basketball and boxing through friends that brought him to professional and amateur sporting events. As he attended certain games and sporting events, Pfeiffer claims that he became wholly uninterested in what was occurring in the ring or on the court; instead, he became interested in people’s observation of the sport and the icons (players) that seemed to grab the attention of every audience member. From this point forward, he began to create critically acclaimed artworks beginning with the series Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a series from the early 2000s to 2018 in which artist Paul Pfeiffer digitally erases specific details from photographs in order to create stunning, yet eerie visuals of professional basketball players. Initially, the series Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse began with Pfeiffer ‘removing’ Marilyn Monroe from a set of five still images leaving only the background of the photographs there for the audience to see. However, this morphed into Pfeiffer taking images from the NBA archive and manipulating them to intensify precise figures during games.
In each image, Pfeiffer digitally manipulates photographs from professional basketball games by erasing all evidence of other players, lines on the court, names and numbers on the player’s jersey, the ball, and all other contextual details that give insight into what is occurring. After erasing all these aspects in the photographs, one single player remains with lights shining on them and an audience intently watching. This can be seen as the player is a deity worthy of worship and raised to iconic status.
However, Pfeiffer is not actually removing aspects from the images; instead, he is covering them up with parts of the background in each photograph. For example, to remove names and numbers from the player’s jerseys, he takes the blank space of the jersey, copies it, and then uses it to cover up or camouflage the numbers and names. Isabelle Loring Wallace on the process of digital erasure that Pfeiffer uses in his artworks states:
“The process is typically called “erasure” by Peiffer’s critics, but “camouflage” by Pfeiffer himself, who has observed that digital software allows him to remove information from the original through what is, in fact, an additive process in which pixels from one moment in a video (or place within a still image) are replicated and placed atop pixels located within another moment in the video (or portion of the digitized photograph).””
Paul Pfeiffer at work during a residency at ArtPace. Production still from the Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 2 episode, Time. © Art21, Inc. 2003.
The manipulation of the photographic images through erasure or camouflage is another means to show that the specific individual in the photograph may not truly be the focal point. However, the idea that a singular person can be made to appear iconic is the message. The commentary is clear that mass media can play a role in forming whom we see as icons.
In Pfeiffer’s eyes, the name and the images in the series not only nod to the notion of the end of the world, but they also represent an evolution of the original depiction of the horsemen of the apocalypse created by Albrecht Dürer in the 1400s. Even though Pfeiffer claims that there is no specific reason as to why he names his artworks after religious passages and ideas, he still presents religious undertones into each of his pieces. He states he sometimes names his artworks after famous or well known major religious events. He believes these events would be viewed just like the audience intently watches the basketball players in each of the photos. As mentioned previously, Pfeiffer uses the godlike appearance of athletes and iconographic images to imply a sense of awe and worship. Therefore, this can be another means of isolating greatness to create a reverence or focal point of his pieces. The use of light in his photos creates a sense of holiness by having the athletes appear as if they glow. The pieces are similar to religious iconography that depicts angels, gods, or deities have an otherworldly glow. Some have commented it is almost like Pfeiffer is adding a halo effect to his pieces as we also give athletes a halo effect.
In another one of Pfeiffer’s artworks, Incarnator, he also uses the idea of icons to showcase the way that current celebrities are admired and become icons through the mass media. In Incarnator, Pfeiffer features Justin Bieber, the famous singer. The use of Justin’s body parts creates the idea that aspects of him can be viewed in different ways. No matter if whole or divided, the icon remains something of reverence. Again, Pfeiffer is playing off the idea of religion’s use of deity’s or symbolic icons. In Pfeiffer’s view, the Justin Bieber piece is also a showcase of the nature of evangelism as Bieber is seen as another form of deity.
Incarnator by Paul Pfeiffer. Images courtesy of Carlier Gebauer, Berlin. Photos by Trevor Good.
Similar to Paul Pfeiffer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, artist Hank Willis Thomas digitally manipulates photographs and advertisements in the series Branded and Unbranded: Reflections in Black by Corporate America. In some of the projects in this series, such as Branded Head, Thomas digitally brands Nike “Swoosh” logos onto the skin on black athletes. These powerful, yet disturbing images are reminiscence of the branding of slaves by their owners. The idea of the Nike brand also draws on the idea of iconography. Nike is an iconic brand, so the idea of another ideal of admiration comes through. Another way to view this work as a form of iconoclasm is that the artist pulls apart and draws attention to the inseparable nature of the Nike brand and the African American experience. This is similar to what Pfeiffer does, but he is focusing his work on one element of a sporting experience to illustrate that icons are almost interchangeable. However, the iconic ideal of the sportsperson remains a paramount focus. Hank Williams Thomas has another piece titled Absolute Power, which is a depiction of the Absolute Vodka style bottle, but within the bottle are bodies laid out as the slaves would have been stacked in the slave ships. Using the iconic image of the bottle, the idea that African Americans were actually part of what fueled the growth of American culture as it is currently is relayed. Comparatively, Pfeiffer illustrates that sports imagery is also seen as iconic, and the players are the fuel that moves’ audiences to a religious experience.
Hank Willis Thomas’ Branded Head (2003) from the series Branded. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Reflecting on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the work resonates as a depiction of the obsession of sports and has received accolades for the artist. The artwork has been displayed at the Whitney Biennial, PS1’s Greater New York, the Sydney Biennial, and the 2001 Biennial. This work is often referred to by others as groundbreaking and reflective of a religious experience. Overall, Pfeiffer’s connection between religious icons and sporting icons fully illustrates the symbiosis of the two worlds.
Links to the artwork:
Dolan, Julia. 2020. “Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal...” Portland Art Museum. Portland Art Museum. Accessed March 21. https://portlandartmuseum.org/exhibitions/hank-willis-thomas/.
“Erasure, Camouflage, and ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.’” 2020. Art21. Art21. Accessed March 21. https://art21.org/read/paul-pfeiffer-erasure-camouflage-and-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse/.
Faires, Robert. 2020. “Holy Hoops.” 'The Rules of Basketball' at the Blanton Reviewed - Arts - The Austin Chronicle. Austin Chronicle Corp. Accessed March 21. https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/arts/2012-12-29/holy-hoops/.
Lookofsky, Sarah. 2020. “Hank Willis Thomas: BRANDING USA.” Hank Willis Thomas | BRANDING USA. DIS Magazine. Accessed March 21. http://dismagazine.com/disillusioned/46123/hank-willis-thomas-branding-usa/.
“Paul Pfeiffer.” 2020. Artmap.com. Artmap Foundation. Accessed March 21. https://artmap.com/musac/exhibition/paul-pfeiffer-2008.
“Paul Pfeiffer at Carlier Gebauer.” 2020. Paul Pfeiffer at Carlier Gebauer (Contemporary Art Daily). Accessed March 21. https://contemporaryartdaily.com/2019/04/paul-pfeiffer-at-carlier-gebauer/.
Roesch, Nathanael. 2017. "The Athletic Turn in Contemporary Art." Order No. 10684149, Bryn Mawr College. https://du.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.du.idm.oclc.org/docview/2032674507?accountid=14608.
Romaine, James. 2014. Revisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art. Eugene, Or.: Cascade Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=PnENBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA327&lpg=PA327&dq=how many pieces are in four horsemen of the apocalypse by paul pfeiffer&source=bl&ots=_kJKJZT61U&sig=ACfU3U23pKD9-6x3dNC8x0_90APGKWc6uQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjL94nRlKfoAhVHVs0KHasABk84ChDoATAQegQICxAB#v=onepage&q=how many pieces are in four horsemen of the apocalypse by paul pfeiffer&f=false.
