The court becomes the artwork, and the game becomes part of its composition. In Geometry of Play, artist Sharmistha Ray turns two pickleball courts at Pittsburgh’s Arts Landing into a fully functional public artwork, where movement, colour and geometry constantly alter the visual field.

Across the playing surface, interlocking circles, triangles, grids and pathways form an intricate pattern informed by the visual language of historic game boards, including Pachisi, the centuries-old Indian board game. The design moves through the complete ROYGBIV spectrum, using the rainbow not only as a visual device but also as a gesture toward inclusion. Once the game begins, the composition is never quite the same: players become moving elements within the work, reshaping its appearance with every rally, pause and change of position.

The project marks Pittsburgh’s first pickleball courts designed by an artist, bringing contemporary art directly into an everyday civic setting. There is no boundary between the artwork and the people using it; the surface is made to be crossed, occupied and activated.

Born in Kolkata and raised in Kuwait, Ray has developed a practice rooted in South Asian visual traditions, using geometric abstraction to investigate questions of identity, displacement and belonging. Her work often transforms familiar visual structures into spaces where personal and collective experience can intersect.

With Geometry of Play, those ideas take a particularly physical form. The geometry is not confined to a gallery wall or viewed from a distance. It exists beneath the players, responds to their movements and changes according to how the space is inhabited.

At Arts Landing, colour and form become part of the game itself; an artwork that only fully exists when someone steps onto the court.

Follow Sharmistha Ray on: Website / Instagram

Photos by Chris Uhren