Location: Columbus Park, Mulberry and Worth Street, Manhattan Chinatown
Date:
Every Sundays May 11 – June 15, 2025, from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day
OpeningReception:
Sunday, May 11, 1–3 PM
Presented by Chinatown Basketball Club, Incidental Contact is an outdoor group photography exhibition and a series of community activations around Chinatown, exploring basketball’s rhythm of trust, tenderness, and connection.
Drawing inspiration from basketball’s definition of ”incidental contact“—touch that occurs in the course of play but is not penalized—the exhibition uses the game as a lens to investigate vulnerability, rhythm, and relational presence. On the court, fleeting touches and shared momentum give rise to trust, tenderness, and understanding—qualities that echo beyond the game and into the emotional lives of its players.
The exhibition curated by Sha Luo and Benji Zijian Hsu, features work by 18 emerging photographers from within and beyond Chinatown Basketball Club; installed along the fencing of Columbus Park’s basketball courts.
CBC was created by artist Lu Zhang and curator Herb Tam in 2019 with a core group of artists, musicians, and designers of Asian descent. Through annual tournaments, monthly themed runs, weekly pick-up hoop gatherings, fundamentals Sunday School workshops, and things we dream up and make, Chinatown Basketball Club lives out a hoops ethics of openness, competitiveness, friendship, and creativity. For us, the basketball court is a home, a studio, a workshop, and a place of belonging.
CBC has participated in and held many artist talks and events, and is deeply involved in the artistic community. Select past programs include a photography community table at the International Center of Photography (ICP); film screenings at Metrograph; an artist market at CBC’s annual tournament; and the Dundun Get A Home Project, initiated with Bungee Space.
Merch
To help cover production costs for Incidental Contact, we’ve designed tube-shaped headscarf with photographs in the show. Functional and wearable, it reflects the spirit of the exhibition—movement, softness, and shared energy on and off the court.
Merch can be perchased at the exhibition and on CBC website.