Godzilla vs. Skateboarders: A Critique of Social Spaces

This exhibition gathers together artists who use the culture and practice of skateboarding as a means to critique architecture, social spaces, and the values constituted by those spaces.

Additional Information

Alex Morrison, Video still from Homewrecker, 1999

This exhibition gathers together artists who use the culture and practice of skateboarding as a means to critique architecture, social spaces, and the values constituted by those spaces. There are now an estimated 20 to 40 million dedicated practitioners of skateboarding worldwide. As British architecture critic Iain Borden states, "[Skateboarding's] representational mode is not that of writing, drawing, or theorizing, but of performing -- of speaking their meanings and critiques of the city through their urban actions. Here in the movement of the body across urban space, and in its direct interaction with the modern architecture of the city, lies the central critique of skateboarding -- a rejection both of the values and of the spatio-temporal modes of living in the contemporary capitalist city." The title Godzilla vs. Skateboarders implies -- as depicted in the cult films -- a site where forces collide, usually in a specific location that carries meaning (some urban landmark). In Godzilla vs. Skateboarders the "versus" is used primarily in the sense of comparison, rather than "against." Nevertheless, skateboarders do at times find themselves negotiating authority. Though the culture of skateboarding does include gender, race, class, and age diversity, skateboarders are mostly youth and mostly male. Godzilla is commonly seen as a figure that does little more than stomp around, bellow, and smash things -- until dispatched at or near some famous urban landmark. So too are skateboarders commonly seen as doing little more than hanging around, "disturbing the peace," and occasionally damaging things -- until dispatched at or near some famous urban landmark (a place known by skateboarders for its skateboarding desirability). This view of skateboarders ignores the social, moral, intellectual, and physical values of a culture that includes not only the performative practice of skateboarding, but dress, music, art, attitude, and language. In Godzilla vs. Skateboarders skateboarding is not simply presented as art, but it is recognized that contemporary art has an intimate relationship with the products and practices of popular culture. In Godzilla vs. Skateboarders, artists create architectural models, architects skateboard, and skateboarders take part in performance art.