Slam Dunk | A solo exhibition by Alyssa Powell-Ascura

Slam Dunk | A solo exhibition by Alyssa Powell-Ascura

We invite you to join us for the opening event for Slam Dunk, happening on November 15, from 2pm onwards.

Opening Reception: Sunday, November 15, from 2pm.

Where: Post Office Projects, Kaurna Country, 175 St Vincent St, Port Adelaide SA 5015

Cost: Free

The exhibition season will then run until December 19, 2026.

The gallery is open Wednesdays to Saturdays, from 11am to 4pm.

Look out for an extensive public program happening throughout the exhibition season.

About the exhibition

Step into the gallery as it transforms into a site where colonial histories intersect with contemporary times, through the most freely accessible third space in the Philippines – the basketball court.

Introduced during the American colonial era, basketball's origins in the Philippines was part of the broader colonial project, where the government’s attempt at nation building meant educating and “civilising” Filipino youth and society to be up to date to so-called modern values aligned with colonial governance. 

Filipinos transformed basketball into something that became a source of identity, community and political expression. It became a way to navigate and resist colonial control, to imagine national pride and to assert agency in day to day life.

“Alyssa takes this paradox as a starting point. Through public program activation and installation, we return to the court, not as an arena of spectacle but as one of everyday commonality. A space of encounter, contest and creativity sustained by those who use it, usually in makeshift form, far from the basketball stadium known by the west.” says independent curator Rayleen Forester, who wrote the exhibition’s essay.

The evolving, socially engaged approach of this exhibition allows Powell-Ascura to escape the simplistic narrative of pervasive Americanisation. By highlighting Filipinos appropriation of inherited colonial legacies, and the tension that lies within each paradox, the artist presents the court as a metaphorical and physical space for different communities to converge.

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Image: Philippines Research Trip Documentation, Alyssa Powell-Ascura with Baller Room

Slam Dunk was developed during a period of research and is supported by a Guildhouse Catapult Mentorship with the Aquilizans in the Philippines, IAF, Vitalstatistix and Open Space Contemporary Arts.

The artist would like to thank her extended collaborators and her wider community for making this exhibition possible.

Connect with the artist

@apowellascura

https://www.roseandcitrus.com/aly/

Connect with the gallery

https://www.postofficeprojects.com.au/

Please Note: In Still Moments, by artist Carly Snoswell is also exhibiting at the same time as Slam Dunk, at the Vestibule of POP. You're encouraged to spend time with both exhibitions. Please check POP's websites for further information.