Skating on a mini ramp at the London Design Museum? The Skateboard exhibition traces the stylistic and cultural evolution of the sport over 75 years – a story of design, performance and the collaborative advancement of communities.
A good 100 boards from 70 years, including the oldest, the first with a kicktail and quite a few from the world's most famous skaters, plus wheels, trucks, helmets, fanzines, DVDs, Converse as a sponsor and above all: a mini ramp, a good one meter high and 2.50 meters long. Anyone can use it as long as they can do the “drop-in”, the basic trick with which you drop into the ramp on the board. The “Skateboard” exhibition has just opened at the renowned London Design Museum and is, of course, dedicated to the design of the board.
This also fits in that sport in general is THE topic at the moment, with the Olympic Games in Paris casting their shadows everywhere. LVMH has stepped in as one of the big sponsors, and the luxury world has discovered the sport for itself. And skating has always been more than just a form of exercise. More of an attitude to life. Coolness, daring and balance. Since 2020 it has also been an Olympic discipline. And the boards that signify the “Ollie” world are a style statement.
It's not just the ramp that ensures that the entire movement it represents remains exactly that: in motion. “Museum-ready” is actually a killer word. What is scientifically processed and accompanied by display boards, presented behind glass and on pedestals, has often lost its freshness and somehow seems to be over.
But skateboarding, although it was invented in the 1950s – surfers nailed roller skate wheels under a wooden board in order to train on land even without waves – and is now a huge commercial machine and has been an Olympic discipline since 2020, so skateboarding still has its own Spirit, a mix of determination, ambition, perseverance and a sense of community. “It is these experiences that give rise to the phrase 'once a skater, always a skater,'” says curator, designer (and skater) Jonathan Olivares. The development of the design “always came from within” – from the performance of the drivers, their ever new tricks: a pattern of “form follows function”.
In the exhibition, it is the stars' boards with which technological innovations are shown – Laura Thornhill's model from the 1970s, for example, the first professional board for a woman, the first board of the multiple world champion Tony Hawk from 1982, one of the US artist and Skater Mark Gonzalez or street skater legend Rodney Mullen. A good half of the boards come from the “Skateboarding Hall of Fame Museum” in California, some from private collections.
Sky Brown, social media star and 2020 bronze medalist when she was 13 and the youngest British Olympian ever, is also represented with her first professional board. She was once called the “poster girl of the very young generation of athletes,” and now there are even younger talents. You start small and stick with it, even without a professional career. It's a question of attitude, a lifestyle. Which is why it can be assumed that skaters of all generations will also be skating on the ramp in the exhibition. Museum-ready? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.
“Skateboard” is in until June 2, 2024 Design Museum to see. The illustrated book was published for the exhibition “Skateboard” at Phaedo.
