_1215_fine_art_catalogue

Skateboarding as
Artistic Practice
by Euan Lynn
Reduced to its bare essentials,
skateboarding can be considered
a reaction to an environment
–‘this is one of skateboarding’s
central features, adopting and
exploiting a given physical terrain
in order to present skaters with
new and distinctive uses other
than the original function of that
terrain.’[1] Skateboarding’s
progression since its invention in
the 1950’s has been defined and
driven by its relationship to
environments, and it is within this
relationship we can see an
argument for skateboarding as
artistic practice.
Production of space is key when
considering skateboarding as an
artistic practice. French
philosopher Maurice Merleau-
Ponty established ideas of ’body
space’ – ‘I am not in space and
time, nor do I conceive space and
time; I belong to them, my body
combines with them and
includes them.’[2] Merleau-Ponty
used the idea of body space to
explain how we experience the
world through interacting with it,
with our body as the
intermediary. Skateboarders,
when performing manoeuvres,
are therefore producing body
space. This could be said for any
other activity – footballers kicking
a football, a dancer moving
around a stage. However, when
skateboarding’s dependence
upon the architectural space in
which it’s performed is taken into
consideration, we see the body
space produced by the
skateboarder not as independent
from this space, but as a part of it.
Iain Borden describes this as
‘super-architectural space’. This
concept is key to thinking of
skateboarding as more than a set
of tricks to be performed, as how
the skateboarder, the movement
they are performing – and
therefore the body space they
are producing – and the
architectural space that they are
reacting to combine to produce
something unique. The images
accompanying this text
demonstrate this. They depict
two skateboarders performing
the same manoeuvre in
completely different architectural
spaces. On the left, Tony Hawk
performs a frontside aerial on a
purpose-built halfpipe ramp, on
the right, Jason Adams performs
the same move, but on a found
street object. This disparity in
architectural spaces means the
super-architectural space
produced by each skater is wildly
different.
These differences in space,
dictated by differences in
intention, differentiate each
skateboarder’s stylistic approach
from one another. The
challenging of the architecture
around them, and the
reinterpretation of the city’s
Tony Hawk performs a frontside aerial on
a half-pipe ramp in a desert. Unknown
photographer.
spaces demonstrates that the
attitude of skateboarders has
much in common with the late
1950’s movement The Situationist
International. Founded upon a
basis of psychogeography, a way
for ‘the city to be reinvented on a
personal level’[3], The Situationist
International, led by Guy Debord,
emerged from an earlier group
- The Lettriste International. It was
the LI who established concepts
of psychogeography, dérive and
détournement[4]. These would
prove incredibly influential
concepts within not only
geography, but art and
architecture – and in turn to
skateboarding. ‘In a dérive one or
more persons during a certain
Jason Adams performs the same move on a
found obstacle, demonstrating the importance
of architectural space in the creation
of super-architectural space. Rob Brink.
period drop their usual motives
for movement and action, their
relationships, their work and
leisure activities, and let
themselves be drawn by the
attractions of the terrain and the
encounters they find there.’[5]
The parallels between this
philosophy and that of
skateboarders is clear to see,
wherein ‘they reveal pathways
and obstacles which offer other,
more interesting and challenging
ways of traversing space.’[6]
Skateboarders seek out
alternative ways to use and move
through space – ‘...it develops into
a far more thoughtful way of
looking at your city. You look for
interesting bits of architecture
that can be skated in a unique
way’’[7] – often unintentionally
subverting the capitalist
intentions of that space.
‘Skateboarders, like everyone
else, are confronted with the
heightening intensification of
advertising in new places and
lines of vision. But in the face of
such commodification, street
skating does not consume
architecture as projected image
but as a material ground for
action and so gives the human
body something to do other than
passively stare at advertising
surfaces. Skateboarding here is a
critique of ownership.’[8]
Skateboarding, by its very nature,
serves to critique capitalism,
though more through effect than
intention. Much recent inner-city
construction is designed not for
people to relax in, but to
encourage them to spend.
Therefore, the use of this space
by skateboarders, focussing
simply on the architectural forms
and how they may repurpose
them, rather than the prescribed
use of the space, is inherently
anti-capitalist as it actively fights
against the intentions of the
space. These anti-capitalist ideals,
whether wholly intentional or
not, form the basis of
skateboarders’ attitudes to the
city and serve to tie
skateboarding’s ephemeral use of
city spaces to that of the
Situationist International even
further.
Guy Debord put forward in his
seminal work The Society Of The
Spectacle (1967) the idea that
society had been ‘devastated by
the shift from use-value and
material concreteness to
exchange value and the world of
appearances.’[9] When applied to
the situation I briefly described
earlier, the comparisons are
obvious, the inner-city plaza is
designed for exchange value and
appearances, where people can
appear to be relaxed and are
wrung out for their money.
However, the skateboarders are
only interested in use-value, that
is, how useful the space is to
them. Despite the Situationist
International’s dissolution in April
1972, meaning the society did
not exist at a time when
skateboarding was anything
other than embryonic, we may,
somewhat romantically, surmise
that skateboarders unwittingly
carry on their work, exploring
their surroundings and creating
abstract and super-architectural
spaces outside of the capitalist
world they work around.
[1] Borden, Iain (2001).
Skateboarding, Space And The City.
Berg. p29.
[2] Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1945).
Phenomenology of Perception, trans.
Smith, Colin (1962). Routledge &
Kegan Paul. p53.
[3] Ford, Simon (2005). The
Situationist International – A User’s
Guide. Black Dog Publishing. p33
[4] Ford, Simon (2005). The
Situationist International – A User’s
Guide. Black Dog Publishing. p33
[5] Debord, Guy. (1956) Theory Of
The Dérive. In: Costa, Xavier. (1996)
Theory Of The Dérive And Other
Situationist Writings On The City.
Museu d’Art Contemporani de
Barcelona.
[6] Jeffries, Michael; Jenson, Adam;
Swords, Jon (2012). The Accidental
Youth Club: Skateboarding in
Newcastle-Gateshead, Journal of
Urban Design, 17:3, 371-388
[7] Woodhead, Louis (2014) Who Has
A Right To The City? 4th November,
The Building Centre, London
[8] Borden, Iain (2001).
Skateboarding, Space And The City.
Berg. p239-243-247
[9] Ford, Simon (2005). The
Situationist International – A User’s
Guide. Black Dog Publishing. p102
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