In pursuit of their the idea that skateboarders are Explorers of the Land and defy the rules of bi-pedal humanity, the artists Michael Parker and Todd Ciborowski created a related pair of sculptures that allow the viewer to physically engage in the geography of their location. The corresponding artworks are situated at the entrances to the skate parks for the Castaic Sports Complex and for George Lane Park in Quartz Hill, both in the Northern part of Los Angeles County. The artists imagined how skateboard enthusiasts would navigate between both skate parks using the 5, the 14 and 138 roadways, and used the outline of the territory bounded by these roads to define the overall shape of their sculptures. They enhanced the three-dimensional digital topography for this land mass-—found readily on the internet—to create a computer-milled formwork for two vertical, 7’-0” high, pre-cast concrete landscapes. For each artwork, the same overall concrete form is rotated so that the corresponding skate park faces upwards; thus, although the two artworks efficiently share the same formwork and refer to a shared geography, each sculpture is unique and site-specific. The highly tactile, large-scale artworks are nested into each park’s looped concrete skate paths with the topographical side facing towards the viewing areas. The inner face of these structures is a smooth surface, the shape of a skateboarder’s “quarter pipe,” that transforms the sculptures into gravity-defying skateable features. As such, both sculptures are cast from a smooth, dense, integrally dyed concrete mixture designed specifically for skateboarding. The artists chose a natural, mesa buff color for the concrete to emphasize the existence of the sculptures within a geological continuum, and hand-stained the sculpture bases to evoke weeping rock, in reference to the processes of geological weathering and erosion.
About the Artist:
The artists Michael Parker and Todd Ciborowski are adjunct faculty at California State University, Long Beach. They began collaborating in the Fall of 2017 on civic artworks that emphasize the relationship between the viewer and the landscape. Each also have individual practices. Michael’s work focuses on labor, systems of power, and personal and collective agency. Todd’s work focuses on the history of craft in relationship to the enlightenment. To learn more, visit: www.michaelparker.org and www.toddciborowski.com.
