TAGBANGER | Skateboarding

Ed Templeton, “This Box”

“A big part of the ephemera was letters from my Grandparents, and especially my grandfather, William, who served as my father after my dad had ran off with our 16-year-old babysitter…One letter in particular was sent because of a caption on a photo of me in a skateboard magazine said, ‘Ed Templeton subliminally worships the devil’ (written because of the hand gesture I was subconsciously making in the photo.) My grandparents took this 100% literally and demanded that I get a public apology from the magazine to protect my image, - or that if I had “indicated an interest in satanic worship” that I would do well to keep it out of the public light. Not only is this generationally comedic, it’s also very touching. It showed me that even if I had become a devil-worshipper, something that to them as born-again Christians would be the pinnacle of disappointment, they would still love me.”

Harsh · 05/06/10

Fabian Alomar

Even if you’re peripherally into skateboard culture, this (pretty long) talk with Fabian Alomar is worth a check out. So is this pretty old interview by Jeff Tremaine. Thanks to Hall for putting me onto both.

Harsh · 02/06/10

Amir Zaki — Relics

James Harris Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Amir Zaki. The artist has been working as a photographer for more than fifteen years, showing work from New York to Los Angles to Seattle. This is his fourth solo exhibit at James Harris Gallery. For this exhibition, Zaki shows a series of color-saturated lifeguard towers that have been digitally manipulated to render them more iconic than real.

Three years ago the artist moved from Los Angles to Orange County, California, prompting a noted shift in his work. Earlier projects captured the pools and mansions common to the Southern California landscape, documenting both the luxury and the cliché embedded in that region’s distinct architecture. Zaki brought a cool eye to these subjects, spying curvy swimming pools from above, and depicting retro-chic living rooms empty of inhabitants. Domestic scenes were rendered as near abstractions, both highlighting their subject’s power over our imagination, and seemingly trying to capture common scenes with an objective approach.

Zaki’s new work explores structures common to his new locale: lifeguard towers and the Volkswagen Vanagon. The beach-side architectural structures seem to float in the sky, as all access to the towers has been digitally erased. Colors in both the skies and the small buildings themselves have been intensified, adding to sense of the fantastic. Several structures read like military outlooks, all streamlined angularity, while others would not seem out of place at nearby Disneyland. The image of the Vanagon presents this beach mobile as both an emblem of 1960s hippiedom, as well as a smooth-edged visual sculpture. On a biographical note, the two vans represent the vehicle Zaki owned as a younger man, and the replacement he sought out more than a decade later. The two mirrored images look at each other nose to nose, perhaps a portrait of youth staring age in the eye.

Amir Zaki, Relics
Reception: 7 January 2010, 6pm
7 January 2010 — 20 February 2010
James Harris Gallery
312 Second Avenue South
Seattle, WA

Jonathan · 12/18/09

Tet

Old interview I didn’t see, he is heading up a new line for A Bathing Ape called Ursus. Drawing by Skate Thing.

Harsh · 07/14/09

s k a t e

Michael · 05/11/09

Strongest Intro

Harsh · 04/21/09

Billy

THE GOAT and the Occasional Others

Thanks Michael

Jonathan · 03/09/09

bobshirt.com - hi-8

Harsh · 01/27/09

Steven Perilloux

My old friend Steven from the RF days, photographer and assistant to Terry Richardson, has just launched his own website which features some of his editorial work and a blog.

Tagbanger · 07/25/08

Ooh Your Weird

THE GOAT & The Occasional Others

Jonathan · 04/04/08

Video Days

Best part in the best skateboarding video ever. Saw this in 8th grade (1991), flipped out and started skating again. Kirk Bishop (RIP Joey) lent me the vhs copy.

Jonathan · 11/12/07