Based on close, repeated observation of basketball and hockey players, Roderick Buchanan’s multi-part installation is a study in team dynamics that reminds us how teams, too, can be ‘in the zone’, and how the interplay between groups of individuals can frequently become more than the sum of its parts. Allying the anatomising freeze-frame of still photography to a big-picture, multi-camera overview of team play in action, the piece shows how practice drills are honed for game situations, and how the mundane repetition of training instills good habits and a larger feeling of confidence and team spirit. Conscious of the extent to which effective teamwork requires individuality to be channeled to best serve the interests of the group, Buchanan is also alert to the human face of these different cogs in the machine, and how personal achievement (in assigned roles and tasks) often reinforces the collective ethos.

Thanks to Adam Bruton and the Mens 1st Basketball team and Ladies 1st Hockey team, Swansea University.