Assemble’s “Skating Situations” Sculptures
As many cities around the world purposely make spaces and surfaces impossible to skate, Folkestone (a port town in England) has—through the 2021 Creative Folkestone Triennial—commissioned public sculptures designed for skateboarders to enjoy. Made by multidisciplinary collective Assemble (in collaboration with local skaters), the nine “Skating Situations” are located on the city’s Harbour Arm promenade. Made from “raw Kentish ragstone found on the beach and steel sourced from a fabricator in nearby Ashford,” the sculptures aren’t just functional, they’re also beautiful to look at. Assemble’s co-founder Jane Hall tells Jennifer Hahn at Dezeen, “Our main starting point was this idea that skateboarding is about appropriating found or existing aspects of the public realm and adapting them through resourceful, low-tech, DIY means. Skaters will appropriate anything for skateboarding but are also unbelievably particular, within a couple of millimeters tolerance, about what makes a good edge to do tricks on. So it’s interesting to design for because you’re constantly having to make sure that really weird things are completely accurate while the rest is not accurate at all.” Read more about the project, and others commissioned for the triennial, at Dezeen.
Image courtesy of Assemble + Creative Folkestone Triennial
Via dezeen.com link opens in a new window
