‘No Comply’ is a fun-loving celebration of everything kooky and courageous from everyone’s favourite ‘useless’ wooden toy.
Helena Long, Stockwell © Rich West
Somerset House is now the proud ancestral home of the definitive history of UK skateboarding.
While you stroll through the exquisitely tilled foyer, you are greeted with an aggressive, brash wall-printed quote from Palomino skate shop owner Nick Sharratt:
“A skateboard exhibition at Somerset House – Fuck off!”.
My sentiments exactly, I felt, as the fatigued steward pointed me in the right direction. To most normies, a Skateboarding exhibition probably seems commonplace. But for the wider skate community this is a poignant turn of events in the scene.
Iain Borden, 1980. Rom skatepark. Copyright the artist.
UK Skate history has never belonged in a prestigious London gallery space, but thanks to meticulous curation from Tory Turk, the exhibition ‘No Comply’ serves as a crucial point of inspiration and reflection.
Skateboarding is in a very different place to where it once was. We can finally now forget the mindless antics of Bam Magera and the Jackass crew drunkenly launching fireworks at his poor parents on MTV.
As an Olympic ‘sport’ and no longer such a fringe activity it is time to rejoice and be proud of its outcast past.
‘No Comply’ magnificently unpacks the dynamic story of Skateboarding in the UK. We follow the exhibition through three captivating themes chosen to trace the journey UK Skateboarding has been on: The City as a Playground, Skateboarding Communities and D.I.Y Culture.
Upside Down, Barbican, London, October 2015
© David ‘Dog’ Vivaldini
Photography is king in skateboarding. Even to this day it competes with the dizzy heights of millions of views on YouTube of amateur videographers. For skating is still best captured and appreciated by still photography.
‘No Comply’ effortlessly connects the decades together with a timeless medley of photographs, starting from the early days in the 70s right up until the modern day. Featuring stills from royalty Wig Worland, Sam Ashley, Recce Leun and Rich West, to see the striking difference between approaches to capturing a trick is remarkable.
With Sam Ashley’s technical approach, for example, with blaring lights and stark contrast, Palace Pro Skater Lucien Clarke is captured in a completely theatrical fashion.
With an emphasis on street skating across London, Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester – forget the poster boys of America – you gaze up the valiant efforts of the UK’s best as they battle the concrete crust of English Architecture.
…you gaze up the valiant efforts of the UK’s best as they battle the concrete crust of English Architecture.
You soon learn that the city can really be this playground that ‘No-Comply’ proposes, a stair set may be entirely invisible to the everyday commuter but to the skater it is a honeypot of punishing challenge.
Design Studio Betong created one off examples of these everyday obstacles that are haphazardly scattered around the exhibition. From waxed curbs to ramps these freestanding objects are more than civil engineering, they are the street furniture of the skaters’ playrooms. There is a clear reverence for the ‘object’ in skateboarding, and it’s fascinating to see how these objects curiously adopt their own character upon every skate.
Lucien Clarke, Switch Backside Noseblunt Side © Sam Ashley
Through the past year skateboarding has experienced the largest increase in uptake since the 2000 nu-metal era. An influx of unclaimed space has become host to new DIY skate spaces, with now over 1,500 active skateparks in the UK.
Built by skaters for skaters, devoid of all typical planning permissions, spots are now teaming full of young rippers as the local parks were off limits.
This DIY ethos bleeds straight into skateboarding’s profound relationship to design. ‘No Comply’ features a plethora of rare zines dating right back to the 70’s that remind us of older times, when skaters were outcasts not Olympians.
It’s incredible how design and aesthetic defines the subculture’s identity. From redoing a trick several times to get it looking the best on camera to the way trousers fall on beat up Vans or Dunks, you fully discover the ways in which design can define the subculture’s identity. The exhibition features rare Palace pieces, a playable forgotten Thrasher game and an extensive archive of lost footage; you can spend hours amongst these relics.
Jørn Tomter, Hackney Bumps, London 2020
© Jørn Tomter
Skater Dan Adams asks “How could one object, a piece of wood on four wheels, create such a phenomenon?” It increasingly becomes clear that it’s the people who chose skateboarding that make it what it is. From shabby bowl carving hippies to eager Olympic youngsters, it’s no wonder skateboarding is where it is today – there is no set type of person that is drawn to it but there is a shared mentality and untainted creativity that belongs in each individual.
You are left at the end of the exhibition with a heartfelt tribute to Essex-born Pro Skater Ben Raemers, who sadly passed away in 2019, after battling depression for years. Whilst skateboarding is more often than not used as a form of escapism, sometimes the reality of everyday living can be exceptionally tough for all generations of skateboarders.
But Raemers himself, in a hopeful attempt to enthuse the everyday visitor to jump on a board, said:
“It’s a lovely day, the birds are singing, the sun is shining. What more could you ask for?”
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Title image is Curtis Pearl and Jake Church, by and © Robert Gifford
