We live in highly political times, with more or less two opposing camps fighting each other – in ideological battles on social media as well as on actual battlefields. Populists everywhere are sticking their filthy turncoat necks in the air and we’re bombarded with fake news, while sensible politics and cooperation are more in demand than ever, because we are destroying our planet at the same time. The signs are not exactly good and the skateboard scene is echoing this. Even if the scene itself is rather apolitical and more interested in finding a new spot than a new party program, the graphics in skateboarding have always been provocative, controversial and contained (socio) political messages. Jürgen Blümlein has now explored the topic of political board graphics with his Skateboard Museum for the “Weapon of Choice” exhibition in Berlin.
Jürgen Blümlein
Somehow, since the dawn of the skateboard, it was treated like a threat to society but it took some time before skater stated first messages or political graphics. In the late 80s Mike Valley placed the quote “please don’t eat my friends” on the top graphic of his iconic Barnyard model. Also the farm scene was influenced by the famous novel “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. At the same time Steve Rocco had the graphic “Think Crime” and a police ticktet for skateboarding on the top of the board. The first graphic displaying a politician (or more a dictator) came from Europe – UK based Death Box skateboards released the “World War“ board for Graham “Mac" McEacheran who also created the graphic – showing Adolf Hitler with a razor blade on top of a map of France, Spain and Great Brittain. In the ad for the board Mac is seen riding the board with a Hitler beard under his nose. Must be British black humour. In the early nineties Real skateboards founded by Tommy Guerrero and Jim Thiebaud released the Hanging Klansman graphic in response to resurgence of KKK activity in the United States. The graphic's powerful message provoked backlash, and Thiebaud subsequently received death threats from supporters of the KKK. That did not stop Jim from releasing a couple follow up graphics and so did and do many other brands to this day, refering to political and social issues via strong and powerful graphics!
Two of the OG World Industries artists Marc McKee and Sean Cliver have created some of the most powerful and very controversial graphics in skateboarding history. Sean Cliver has founded Strangelove skateboards together with Nick Halkias. Already the brand name is political (please go see Dr. Strangelove) and their graphics mainly picking up politics and social distortion. Jim Thiebaud and Tommy Guerrero helped Julian Stranger in the mid 90s to create Anti Hero skateboards under the DLX distribution umbrella to go against corporate influence. Vegan Ed Tempelton is going strong with political graphics and messages ever since! Nowadays we see also more smaller brands like LoveSick from LA (with graphics by Mirko Illic, Brian Romero and Jay Riggio), or Reveal skateboards, and Theories of Atlantis with strong political or conspiracy theory graphics. In Europe Yama Skateboards from Austria always had a strong message through their graphics. LovenSkate from London released a couple boards on the Brexit and going against the monarchy. In Germany we have Morphium und Telum Skateboards on the forefront of the political graphics for years now.
"The graphic's powerful message provoked backlash, and Thiebaud subsequently received death threats from supporters of the KKK."
Right now in the US everything is poisoned by a political system with two parties. One of these parties has been conquered by a crazy narcissist. Nationalism, lies, immigration and more weapons as citizens make it a very dangerous mixture and I really hope we will not see another storm of the capitol or any political violence after the election. Some even fear a civil war. Unfortunately, the fear is genuine. I spoke with several friends and skateboarders in California, and they generally avoid making political statements. In today’s era of social media, where having a large following is crucial, taking a stand on any issue could risk losing a significant portion of your audience. In this election period, we haven’t seen any new “anti” Trump graphics. This is a contrast to 2016 and even the 2020 election, when numerous graphics emerged, particularly following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, highlighting these significant social issues. Not even any fun ones like the “Vote Bam” from Element in 2000 and 2008, the Lakai election series shoes or the great “Make Muska skate again” 2020. I personally had high hopes for a graphic featuring a “In Springfield, they eat the cats and dogs” theme, perhaps as a clever Simpsons spoof. The absence of such creativity feels somewhat like a form of depression and stagnation. However, artists like Todd Francis continue to post strong, impactful statements and artworks on social media, keeping the creative and artistic political spirit alive.
As said early on as we had fun on our beloved devils toys, we were in the bullseye of the conservative bourgeoisie. As skateboarding is not really an organised sport, there is a lot of free thinking and a free spirit. When you have to fear getting a ticket for skateboarding you start to scrutinise authorities. If you freedom of speech and thinking outside the box is more on the left of the political spectrum, we as skateboarders are more on the political left for sure. But since Trump was in office, a couple of the older skateboarders tend to support him. Even OG punk rock skaters like Duane Peters. Anyway, of course if you have a powerful medium as skateboard graphics, you use it, but overall critical or political graphics are still special. If you look on the board wall in a skate shop with 40 to 60 boards, you might see one or two with a provoking graphic or message.
The US society has strong connections to the military as the United States armed forces are a strong part of the US society. That is reflected in a lot of skateboard graphics – many in a critical way of course.
Yes, Trump is number one – I guess he would be happy to know this. But all over the republican president’s are heavily displayed. From Nixon, Reagan, Bush senior to junior. Also Democrats like Kennedy (mainly his assassination), Bill and Hillary Clinton and of course Joe Biden got immortal on a skateboard graphic. So overall I would say all politicians got on board and more to follow for sure.
Seeing a cop revealed under a KKK pointed hat is quite provocative and one really tough one is by Marc McKee – a dead security guard with a “No skateboarding” sign stuck up in his ass. Marc was not even sure if the graphic is too shocking and if there is a chance to release it. And of course number one is still the 101 Natas Devil Worship. Created by Marc McKee again and even too hot for Jason Lee who let down a 10,000 Dollar offer from Steve Rocco to ride it with his name attached. It was an easy one for Natas Kaupas as he already had issues with his name spelled backwards.
Yeah, as mentioned before Jim Thiebaud got death threats for the graphics – so he definitely had hit some people in the face. For me personally the Morphium “Made in USA” series has a great subliminal message. As the US for example founded the Taliban via the CIA to fight the Russians. So from being freedom fighters they were made a terrorist group after 9/11. One board has Hillary Clinton water boarding inmates at Guantanamo Bay – that’s how you create future enemies of the state!
There are a couple of Putin board graphics in the exhibition but mainly focusing on the nuclear threat by him and other dictators. From Ukraine the Simple Skateboarding brand from Odessa has board series available with graphics addressing that there is the war ongoing for over two years now. Happy to see that so many Russian skateboarders took and take a stand against the war and the killing. Regarding the Gaza conflict, we saw just recently that US based skate shop Pharmacy has released a special board with a “Free Palestine” graphic and 100% of the proceeds from this collection will go to suffering families in Gaza. I hope that we soon find a way to stop these wars and conflicts and seek a way to live more peaceful and have less hatred and nationalism.
We have exactly one board graphic on display from the 2016 campaign
trail with the slogan Hillary Clinton “For prison”. The “Lock her up”
chant related to Clinton’s use of a private email address for exchanges
with her state department staff while she was secretary of state. But
this board was acquired at Zazzle – an online platform for print on
demand products. So the proceeds did for sure go to a pro-Trump designer
but at least not to a weird skateboard brand. There are some pro-Trump
skateboard brands like Caress of Vacance wich I never wanted to support
or contact for the exhibition.
I think most of these boards go overall to collectors or older skateboarders. For sure there are some chain / mall skate shops not buying any controversial graphics but core skate shops will for sure have those on display. The skate kids of today go more for the trendy brands like Hockey or Baker, but I have seen great graphics from Quasi addressing climate chance or school shootings.
I would say it’s more important than ever to take a stand and address political topics and social issues. Thats why we chose the sub line: United we skate – Divided we slam!
