Directions: Antonio Rovaldi

In The Opening Day (2009), a room-scaled video installation by Antonio Rovaldi (Italian, b. 1975), the viewer becomes a part of whatever destructive game is being played, imagining the arc of a fastball crossing the gallery from the pitcher's hand to the imperiled knickknack. Rovaldi often explores how distance is represented in art. Is he commenting on the pressures athletes and artists—or, indeed, any of us—feel when struggling to perform consistently and achieve our aims? Once marginal, media works are central to today's artistic practice.