Skateboarding has transformed and redefined the urban landscape while also considering the aesthetics and richness of this youth culture. Artists Steve Badgett and Matt Lynch, a.k.a. Simparch, horizontally bisected the Center’s Ruth Horwich Gallery with an enormous wooden basin, known as the skatebowl. The form of Free Basin recalls the abandoned swimming pools of Southern California, which has been a traditional terrain for skateboarding. The artists found the basin a particularly poetic form with important resonance in traditional architecture. It is also a form that gives skaters opportunities for challenging creative performances.
This exhibition was curated by Lia Alexopoulos and traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts (2002), Documenta XI (2002), and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2004).
