I t is thunderous in the carpenters Workshop Gallery, it’s almost hypnotiz- ing. The unabated sound of wheels hit- ting pavement fights against the chorus of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” when the Co-Founding Partner and Managing Di- rector Art/Furniture Owenscorp, Michèle Lamy, tells me that “skateboarding is a way to communicate through the movement of the body.” All the works are produced by the dynamic artists collective LamyLand and produced and presented by Carpen- ters Workshop Gallery Los Angeles. The Turning Tricks team includes Chris Ben- field, Skyler DeYoung, Lamy’s daughter Scarlett Rouge, and Danny Minnick, who is also the show’s co-curator. Reimagining iconic skate spots throughout LA, Turn- ing Tricks is an ode to the defiant art form that consists of twelve unique and skate- able pieces that can endure the relentless skate aggression, wherein they explore this exchange between the body and the unforgiving pull of the earth. A slab of waxed concrete, a gilded fire hydrant, or a trashcan that may or may not be in use might seem mundane to a layman, but to the enlightened, it is another opportunity to challenge an unkind gravity, the will of the wind, and the natural allure of iner- tia. “It’s not really an object or a show, it’s more a story of wanting to greet the city. Art is usually in Paris and London.” Lamy shares, “We’re in LA right now, and we re- ally want to give and be part of something that is giving to the skating community.” Flaunt was able to carve out a few words with Lamy, Minnick, DGK pro skater Dane Vaughn, and pro skater turned designer, Erik Ellington, before the drop-in to speak on continuing to ride with evergreen op- timism even when knowing what it feels like to have our backs against the concrete.
DANNY MINNICK
While skateboarding has now been recognized as an Olympic sport and perme- ated the mainstream, how do you still see skating as a defiant art form, an act of defiance? Styles in current skating and how it’s evolved make styles indistinguishable and per- sonal touch or style gets watered down due to stringent standard set by the industry. It’s robotic and over-evolved and is parallel with the evolution of society. Why is defiance important to you with regard to creativity? People aren’t as opinionated anymore. There’s less character, no more jagged edg- es, and as a result, it becomes a mold—just like the current styles in skating. In art, there are no rules or evolution, so your true style shows, and this is the same with the 90s-00s era of skateboarding.
ERIK ELLINGTON
With skating for as long as you have, how does the passion stay alive for you? You have to really want to do it. It’s a kind of thing I got into as a way to express myself and I didn’t have to join a team to do it. It’s the way I share with the world. And I think that no matter how old you get, that’ll always remain the purest thing. I think that no matter what my approach to life is, I’m always looking at it through a skateboarder’s eyes. Do you have a favorite surface to skate on? Well, I think we pretty much find almost anything you can skate on, which is I think what a lot of these pieces suggest. So I think that is what’s unique about this is that these are objects that we value so highly, and Danny did a fantastic job of curating them. Normally people don’t look at a trash can or a fire hydrant in the way that we do, or a bench or a piece of concrete we’re sitting on. It has its own personality, and I think that that’s what this show is about, the personalities and the uniqueness of skateboarding and skateboarders as individuals.
DANE VAUGHN
Do you have a favorite piece? I have a favorite piece here. It’s the recreation of Lockwood, it’s a famous spot from back in the day. It was really famous before I even started skating, and I started skat-
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