Preliminaries , first round - 1976

Variable size

Photo work from Preliminaries, a video and sculpture installation
Golden Gloves Boxing Competition, Madison Square Garden, New York
Exhibited at the M.L. D'Arc Gallery in New York, 1976.

A full scale boxing ring is positioned in a darkened space with two video monitors mounted in opposite corners of the ring. The videos display interviews with 3 pairs of contestants from the 1976 Madison Square Garden Golden Gloves amateur boxing matches. Surrounding the ring are audio speakers which recreate each match in quadrophonic multi-dimensional sound. Accompanying the installation are 9 unique photo works in 3 groups and numbered by round.

Review(s) on Preliminaries , first round , 1976

The multiple levels of Welch's piece are fascinating. The very subject matter of boxing reveals human beings who fight for very real and different reasons. Welch, by using objective tools, ends up revealing subjective human feelings...Then there is the ring itself. It looks like a piece of minimalist sculpture. It is made of all the tools an artist uses: canvas, rope, poles, wood. And the fighters can be seen as moving parts within that sculpture, much as the sensibility of the artist moves through his tools.
Tara Collins, Arts Magazine, May 1976