Cecilie Lind
Legend
Legend - a skateboard project by Cecilie Lind
When I was invited to participate in this project, I instantly knew that I was making the board in porcelain. It was obvious since that is the material I work with.
Porcelain has traditionally been used to create utility objects and porcelain figures. It originates from China, where it has been in use since the 7th century (year 600-700).
The Norwegian Porsgrund's Porcelain factory established in 1887, has a long tradition. Bogstad Strå was launched at the opening of the factory. The decoration is hand-painted and is Porsgrund's Porcelain factory's variation of the "everlasting" pattern from the 18th century. The same pattern I have decorated the skateboards with.
In my art practice I use porcelain to create unique sculptures, but in this project I go back to the tradition of making an utility object. A skateboard.
Initially, skating was an underground culture that emerged in youth movements as early as the 1950s in California. In the 1980s, skateboarders met the punk movement. Skateboarders related to punk in rebelling against the established and conforming. The same approach I have as a practitioner of a traditional material. From 1978 to 1989, skateboards were totally banned in Norway.
For this project I choose not only to create an object that could be used, but one that should be used. And it was to be used by the legendary Norwegian skater Fritjof Cornelius Krogvold. It was also obvious that the event had to be recorded by one of Norway's foremost video artists, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, who still works in the legendary program Jaleo. Jaleo was the first video editing tool purchased by the National Academy of The Arts in Oslo in 1997.
Porcelain is an incredibly strong, hard and sturdy material. Some of the sharpest knives on the market are made of porcelain. But it's also fragile. If you drop the knife to the floor, it will break.
Strong and fragile. Hard and vulnerable. Durable and perishable.
The work consists of seven porcelain skateboards and a video featuring Fritjof Cornelius Krogvold, who is skating on six of them. The video is recorded and edited by Tor Jørgen van Eijk.
Video stills
To collect this work, go to Atelie