Concrete Poetry
Keith Langergräber
(May 3 - July 2, 2007)
“It was in the streets that spontaneity expressed itself… in an area of society not occupied by institutions.”
~ Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (La production de l’Espace, 1974)
Concrete Poetry xplores the relationship between skateboarding and urban space, a process that involves the unlocking of a city’s potential as a site of creation, community and human agency.
The exhibition included several large-scale, (6’x 8’) mixed media drawings that amalgamate views of various skate spots found throughout the world. The drawings are of an imaginary city that would be like any other city with bridges, buildings, street lamps, etc. In addition, three concrete benches were designed and constructed specifically for the exhibition. Fragments of text (skateboarding vernacular from locals) which were layered into the artist's series of smaller drawings and sketches are also found engraved into the exterior surfaces of the benches. The benches also mimic the biomorphic rhythm found in the large scale drawings.
Skateboarders are on the forefront of the counter culture. Concrete Poetry demonstrates how the radical aspects of skateboarding often meet with great resistance. The exhibition focuses on aspects of skateboarding in urban and suburban locations through both the discursive metaphor of play and possibility, allowing the body to extend into a space restricted by advertising signage and suppressed through security.
Says Keith in his artist statement, "Skateboarding will continue to remain out-of-step with the routines of the city. Spaces will be seized for small periods of time until the space is rendered unskateable. Skateboarding uses public space so that architecture is productive and is consumed by activities that are not explicitly commoditized."
