Artist Statement

Cities are completely different environments now to what they were 20 or 30 years ago. With technology and engineering advancing faster and faster every year, it’s hard to fathom what our cities might look like in the next 20 years. However, although these new technologies allow room for a lot of advancements, some struggle with the concept of our cities becoming busier, and the introduction of one-way systems in a lot of cities making them harder to manoeuvre and more congested than ever. Since the start of the ongoing and pandemic, it has never been made more clear how important freedom of movement is, especially within our cities.

 

How, in such a time of uncertainty, can we tackle such problems and make the city safer and easier for everyone to access? Art has always been a way to vocalise our opinions and thoughts on social issues and bring them to the light, is this still relevant now in a time when everyone has a voice on social media? By making art interactive, can we find a way to healthily engage these issues? I believe so.

 

They have always said that art imitates life, so if we make interactive-art throughout cities to deal with these issues, surely we can improve out quality of life. Through the act of skateboarding, an act often seen as rebellious, can we use the way we move throughout cities to highlight how important that freedom is? And how damaging it might me to restrict or limit such movement. Countries across the world have already started react to this idea, with countries such as Austria and Sweden embracing this logic, with spaces that are designed to skate that the publican also utilise. This has even impacted our very own country, with South Bank in London managing win its battle against gentrification and cities like Nottingham, which will soon introduce its very own public skate-space.

 

Within my work, I aim to show the general public just how important cultures such as skateboarding are within cities, and how through building a sense of community and resilience with that culture, almost anything is achievable. Skateboarding is all about learning, in a sport where 99% of attempts resulting failure, there is no room for weakness. It knocks you down, but most importantly it teaches you how to get back up which is fundamental, especially for the younger generations who face tests we have never faced before.