Indepth Arts News:
"THIS IS THE FLOW by The Girl Skateboard Company + Gyz La Rivière & Robert Rosenau"
2001-06-17 until 2001-08-12
De Vleeshal
Middelburg, ,
NL Netherlands
A first-of-its-kind project exploring the ideas of form, commodity, creativity, space and imagination as it exists in the world of skateboarding. If you have ever kicked around on the stuntwood you've
probably also customized your griptape, designed homemade
stickers, constructed a board from the remains of four dying
boards, filmed every one of your friends skating, or built
something that resembles a ramp. The list actually goes on
and on, but the point is in there. Creating things and
skateboarding roll along right next to each other. Always
have. This premise is at the heart of this exhibition. Kind of.
And if you've ever kicked around on the stuntwood, you've
also, at some point, probably spent more of your time doing
just that, trying to get better and better. You made stuff when
you were bored or hurt.This premise is at the heart of this
exhibition. Kind of.
Two facts that are solid in skateboarding are that some
people need skateboards and some people supply
skateboards. However, the grey area that exists between
those two extremes is vast and complex. A population of
people whose numbers could fill a decent sized city exist in
this realm, passing in, around and above each other, bound
together by some weird unspoken tie. Elements of the two
extremes mentioned above permeate into this space, feeding
people with ideas, money, contracts, film, art shows, music,
magazines, jobs, travel, flow lists, A-Teams, B-Teams,
demos, and promos. The flow is just that. A river. Forms are
recycled, ideas are recycled, objects and places are born and
then die and then are reincarnated, scenes are idolized and
bashed, secret spots are blown up, people appear and then
they vanish. Sales go up, sales go down. Limits get pushed
until they burst, wheels spin and then they stop, and then
everything is silent. But the flow remains.
This is the Exhibition:
With many of these elements in mind, this project was born.
On one side of this collaborative fence there is Girl
Skateboards, a company widely recognized by the superior
talent that makes up it's skate team and by the creative and
innovative angles they choose when creating videos, board
graphics, magazine ads, etc...The creative core of Girls' part in
this exhibition is the Art Dump (Rob Abeyta, Megan Baltimore,
Jeremy Carnahan, Rick Howard, Andy Jenkins, Tony Larson,
Michael Leon and Andy Mueller.) On the other side, Gyz La
Rivière and Robert Rosenau, artist/skaters from the
Netherlands. Robert and Gyz are part skate archeologists, part
(de)constructionists, part performance artists, utilizing
materials as varied as found objects, video, light, projections
and installations.
In this exhibition, the Art Dump team has drawn heavily upon
the ideas of art as a sustaining force in the actual business of
skateboarding as well being a showcase for the creators in this
medium and the moving world they pull inspiration from. From
this exhibition an actual board series has been developed,
and viewers will be given the opportunity to get a glimpse into
this process. Each artist will be using an installed station that
will feature his two graphics and be used to reveal all of the
art/thought that was created in the development of this
project. The stations also, inadvertently, serve as mock
shop displays containing boards, and a show specific zine --
thus accenting the commercial, or practical, side of the
artwork.
Robert and Gyz are addressing skateboarding from the
consumer end. The re-birth of the product after purchase by
a skateboarder. By layering and filling the space with large
interactive, mobile walls Robert and Gyz have created a sort of
guide thru the space. The walls have been constructed out of
hundreds of used and new skateboard parts, video
projections, transparencies and found objects.
Both sides in this project are using materials given to them by
the other, new objects becoming used and faded, assigned
new duties, while the lifeless and broken are thrown back onto
their wheels, and, back into the flow.
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