LONDON PROJECT

Intial Research.

STYLE WARS: THE BIRTH OF HIPHOP 1983

Situated in New York in the 1980s, this documentary fouses on bombing (graffity) in New York City transport system and the ‘writers bench’. “I’m not running the city, I am bombing it” and “I was there” (talking about tagging), exploring youth graffity writers. Explores how graffity, youth, culture and HipHop intervine.

RODNEY MULLEN - most influencial skateborder of all time

Mullen is credited for inventing numerous tricks, including the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible, and 360-kickflip. Aims to provide an inclusive space for skateboarding. The above video also showcases the practicality of fashion in this sport.

SKATEBOARDING ZINES 1980S :https://skateandannoy.com/galleries/zines/

EXPLORING TAGGING AROUND LONDON:

We mapped London's most notorious graffiti writers
byu/otlos inlondon

CASE STUDY - GULAN

TRAIN FROM STRATFORD TO LONDON LIVERPOOL STREET * SQUATERS?

I decided to look outside the window during this train journey and noticed that there were almost rooms in the tunnells of the station. One room was filled with grafiity, whilst some of the others seemed to have solar panels. This one caught my attention, it says “Gulan Lives Here”. I decided to Google Gulan to find that he is a skateborder from East London, who exerpienced youth homelessness.

Link to article about him: https://www.nocomplynetwork.com/gulan/

As I began to become ineterested in his story, I began to see his tagging evverywhere in East London. There is a connection that can not be put into words when talking about tagging, almost like “look I was here”. I often used to tag in East London aswell, sometimes you walk past your tags that you forgot about, it says that once I was here and the worlds knows it.

I began documenting everytime I saw Gulans tag in East London, this is one week of documentation. I have now seen his work both in East London and Central London (Farrigdon

During this process, I felt like I was walking in his foot steps (literally).

MILE END SKATEPARK

££££

Diary entry:

There were more people using the skatepark as a third space than people who were actually skateing. The only women in the space were there with their male partners and these women were in the minority. The skatepark had the UK grime playing and graffity with poltical messages. During my visit to the park, I found that some people were trying to get their skateboarding tricks in my footage. The only person I spoke to was a coach for a women and non-binary skateclub in Hackney.Those people that embodied the sterotypical skater look, did not want to engage with being documented. It is certainly unconfortable to be a women in male dominated spaces.

NICHOLAS ONG - ARTIST

I interviwed Nicholas Ong, who was at the skatepark with his wife. He talked about the inclusivity of Mile End skatepark. Nick used to skate a lot and has now restarted again. His wife goes to melinin gal pals and he coaches at Beginner Bumps that is space for women and non binary people to learn skateboarding -- he invited me to their session in Hackney on Sunday at 10 am.He did a tri flip for me.

THERE ARE WOMEN IN THESE SAPCES THAT ARE NOT DOCUMENTED

A photo I took of my friend a while back. She is a fashion designer herself and works in street wear. This is a photo I took of her spray painting in Kings Cross Canel. She carrys around her paint pen and tags spaces around London.

NOTES:

- Streetwear design culture and street culture is often gatekept.Brands usually have private Instagram accounts and you can only acess the website through a password to buy something. These pieces are often very simple with a logo that centers it.

TORY TURK - PROJECT PARTNER

20 MIN CALL WITH TORY TURK (FOUNDR OF HiCULTRE.

ABOUT TORY -

Tory Turk is an independent exhibition curator, specialising in style and popular culture. She has curated exhibitions at a variety of cultural and educational institutions, and in partnership with top-tier brands including exhibitions at Somerset House, The Korean Cultural Centre UK, The Fashion Space Gallery and the Design Museum. Partners include Hennessy, Selfridges, Belvedere, Pentland, Amazon, the Centre for Fashion Curation and IE7 & Don’t Stop Your Future (DSYF).

In 2021 she curated No Comply at Somerset House which explored the phenomenon of skateboarding and its impact on culture and communities over the past 40 years. Most recently she was associate curator on the Design Museum’s SKATEBOARD.

She launched HYMAG alongside James Hyman, founder of The Hyman Archive (‘The World’s Largest Magazine Collection’ Guinness certified). Other large-scale cataloguing projects include establishing the archives of Charlotte Tilbury, Sam McKnight and Val Garland.

PARTNERING WITH TORY....

We were introduced through email by Nathalie Khan. Following a brief exchange to schdule a call, we would call for around 20 minutes. In this call she suggested a zine would be a great idea for my London project. Turk would make suggestions on the content of the zine. She would also link me with other women who focus on skateboarding.

HELENA LONG

ABOUT -

It’s hard to imagine Helena Long not smiling. Hailing from Greenwich in South London, Helena first cut her teeth skating the streets of London where she quickly became a mainstay of the UK skate scene. Having recently recovered from double knee surgery, Helena seems to be making up for lost time. Whether out on her bike searching for new street spots, or skating local Stockwell park, a stone’s throw from London’s female run skate shop Brixton’s Baddest, Helena’s obsession with skateboarding shines through. Never one to stay in one lane Helena also plays drums in the band Upset Stomach. As part of our ongoing series on the women of Vans, we gave Helena a call to see where she was at with life.

After being connected by Tory through email, I interviewed her through a phone call.

AGA WOOD

Everyone On Boards is a shining example of how engagement and organisation, coupled with passion and perseverance, can achieve great things for the surrounding community. It was initially born out of necessity as founder Agnieszka ‘Aga’ Wood recognised some missing infrastructure that would benefit her daughters. It has since grown into an organisation that directly benefits the immediate community through events and beyond. Since lockdown, Everyone On Boards have implemented different incentives to encourage children of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy the thing we all love and facilitate their entry into the fold.

INTERVIEW WITH AGA.

We got connected through Tory, Aga and I did a zoom call, this was extremely productive for the project. She said that she would want to take it toward after univeristy and do a film about women in skateboarding in collabration with me. I have plans to develop this project into a semi-consistent zine and brand -- this is something Aga found very exciting and wants to take it futher. The idea that doing streetwear and skateboarding through the female gaze was something that she belives does not exist today.

FINAL TUTORIAL -

IN MY FINAL TUTORIAL MY TUTOR SUGGESTED THE NAME “TRAMPS” FOR MY PROJECT. THIS IS FROM HELENA IN HER YOUTH CALLING WOMEN WHO GO TO SKATPARKS WITH THEIR PARTNERS WHO DO NOT SKATE THEMSELVES ‘RAMP TRAMPS’.

FROM HERE I CREATED ‘TRAMPS’ YOUTUBE AND EMAIL

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJBBPx3pVZPwk2RNOq12ESQ