Skate-of-the-art vibes at Space 1026 – Knight Foundation
Arts

Skate-of-the-art vibes at Space 1026

Chunky bubble letters reading “ginuwine” — in quoation marks — offer the best overall synopsis of the “Art ‘N’ Skate Zone” at Space 1026. The paint looks lifted straight from a box car or a rusty bridge abutment, and the curved surface it’s on might make a great ramp if it weren’t hugging the wall so awkwardly. With the quotation marks in mind, what here is genuine, if anything? How much pop culture can you cram into into one fake skate park? Can you actually skate on this stuff, and if so, when is the demonstration?

“Ginuwine.”

Dan Haddigan, Bradford Haubrich and Eric Kenney, otherwise known as the “Long Ass Grind Boys,” paint, poster, beer can, action figure and clothing-accessorize their way through 1026 with about as much regard for good taste as a fanny pack donning parody of a parody. If nothing else, killing some time around their installation is chill and entertaining, although it’s almost certain that the artists had even more fun slapping it together than we get to have gulping cheap beer and ogling it.

Coors logo freshness and a Rocky Mountain high hat: necessities of the modern home?

Coors logo freshness and a Rocky Mountain high hat: necessities of the modern home?

If you’re in the mood for something conceptual or highbrow, this is not the place to come. However, if you’re feeling tiles, trash, text and neon tiger stripes, then you’re in for a treat. Most of the graffiti and clutter on the walls seems totally off-the-cuff, the words and images flung into the space with disarray and charming irreverence.

"Drink soda till you die"

“Drink soda till you die.”

Product placement resides in uneasy cohabitation with religious icons, meanwhile empty potato chip bags occupy equal space alongside a tie-dye shirt, a baseball cap and a painting of the very same baseball cap (which reads simply “bumpy”). A gilded picture frame surrounds the words “modern home” in the same colors as the sketchily reproduced Coors Rocky Mountain landscape that both upholds and mocks the glut of refreshingly defaced beer advertisements strewn about.

Eating pizza in front of North Korea state television broadcasts.

Eating pizza in front of North Korea state television broadcasts.

This show would be easy to write off as a postmodern train wreck if it weren’t so endearingly indifferent. Even for someone with next to no knowledge of skateboarding, the sheer nonchalance of the “Art ‘N’ Skate Zone” is pretty contagious. Confronted by not nearly majestic, bug-eyed eagles cut out of a gnarly throw rug and dudes devouring pizza while footage of North Koreans grieving the recently expired Kim Jong-il rolls behind them, what’s really not to like?

The TV-half-pipe-kitchen-floor centerpiece to the show.

The TV-half-pipe-kitchen-floor centerpiece to the show.

A television set topped with two green skulls and a black plastic rat loops videos atop a sort-of-sideways half pipe coated in kitchen floor linoleum in the very center of the room: a shrine to electronic entertainment and pre-X Games preoccupations like grinding railings and being “awesome dudes.”

An eagle cut out of a carpet.

An eagle cut out of a carpet.

The subculture of skaters obviously isn’t one of abstract expressionism or tightly curled intellectuals; it’s one of soft hedonism, anti-gravity and burning off steam. Even if you’ve never set foot on a deck, this show is, in the words of the artists, an event of “skate-of-the-art” proportions. It will be loitering at Space 1026 through March 28.

Space 1026 is located at 1026 Arch St., Philadelphia; [email protected]space1026.com.