hcma architecture + design | artist residency
My artist residency involved exploring new territories with hcma through the theme Delightful Unburdening.
SKATE WORLD
I discovered a way to delightfully unburden, and it’s through community connection through the world of skateboarding. In this residency, I designed and built a skatepark that reflected upon skateboarders and explored how skate parks can keep transforming to become welcoming spaces for all identities, levels and abilities. I explored the question of how inclusive spaces can be built and bring communities together. My project included design elements that were fun, playful, reflective and artful, and ultimately allowed the viewer to look in and imagine themselves unburdening with community.
MORE BACKGROUND
Exploring the world of skateboarding can start small. It did for me. Growing up, I didn’t see people who were like me at the local skatepark, so instead I drew self portraits of what I would look like as a real skater! And to truly start small, I bought my first Tech Deck/ fingerboard so I could start to imagine skating and have fun making up skate tricks on a 4 inch board. It wasn’t until 2020 that I got myself a skateboard and started to connect with the growing local skateboard community in Alberta.
The skatepark and skate obstacles I created for this residency were built for Tech Decks/fingerboards, and as part of the project, I’ll worked with the hcma Edmonton team to make their own custom graphic for their Tech Deck skateboards. For the skateboard community, the skateboards’ design and style are a key part of their core identity. Collaboratively with the hcma team in a workshop, we used film cameras to make images that became our custom graphics.
INSPIRATION FOR SKATE WORLD
My artistic practice is in film photography and when I reflect on the idea of Delightful Unburdening, it’s the moments that I’m photographing flowers and greenery that I do this the most. As part of SKATE WORLD, I photographed flowers which informed the park’s visual design. To make the design elements of the Tech Deck/fingerboard park, I started to think about how the image of a flower can influence the movement of a skateboarder throughout the space. And furthermore, how the petals and stem of a flower can be a visual guide throughout the skatepark to make it delightful to skate through.
I combined elements of film photography, digital pattern making, video making and projection, in a final presentation.
SKATE INDEX
self portrait, drawing, c. 1998
portrait, photo/digital pattern, 2022
PROJECT ARCHIVE
WORKSHOP for hcma Edmonton
Stop by the photo studio set up and take a film photo that will be used to contribute to the skatepark design and custom skate deck graphics. Explore steps involved in taking a film photo and making an image, and also learn about the darkroom development process.
Following this workshop, I will be developing the b&w film at SNAP Gallery. Then the scanned images will be incorporated into design elements for SKATE WORLD.
DARKROOM CHEMISTRY
Film processing times for various film stocks and chemicals can be found on The Massive Dev Chart - it’s the world's largest source of processing times for developing black & white film.
I developed 3 rolls of 120 film at SNAP Gallery, and the roll of 35mm colour film was taken to a lab for processing.
Next step is scanning the negatives and getting ready to envision how the images will be used for the park and skate deck designs.
SKATE PARK DESIGN
Concept I - Botanical Skate Plaza
low profile terrain, flat ground, encouraging skateboarders of all levels to skate the photograph, choosing to skate in a curved line, practice kick turns, practice pushing and balancing, relaxing space that invites community to skate and explore their movements interacting with the floral pattern design.
Custom deck designs created for the hcma Edmonton team. Designs are created from 120 film photos, 35mm film photos and digital patterns made as part of the artist residency.
The half pipe design features a 120 film photo of a flower running down the centre of the ramp. The delightful visual of a flower serves as a guide for skaters to enveloped by the floral design and have fun skating the mini ramp. If this ramp was built to scale, the image of the flower further serves the purpose of encouraging skaters to lean in, drop in and overcome fear.
Each side of the mini half pipe is designed with a digital pattern created from 35mm film photos. The images also features a flower pattern, which will be delightful to those skating or enjoying the park as a viewer.
Bright green metal coping and spray painted aspects of the mini half pipe were also added to the visual identity of the SKATE WORLD park.
