Julien Martinez

BFA Drawing

ARTIST STATEMENT: Hostile Boards is a project that aims to articulate not only the impact of what we are told is helpful and safe architecture for prevention of invisible crime. But also aims to present resistance in the form of showing resilience through a medium that is both engaging visually and physically and something that can be held. It is an experience that you can only truly come to realize once you’ve held it under your feet and in your hands so you can feel the discomfort as you try ever so hard to stay on, as you show resilience. Taking something that is normally used to help us and adding on in a way that hinders its use, creates and interesting relationship that spans over more subjects than the use of a skateboard. One of those subjects being that of the homeless population. Through research and personal experience with hostile architecture it became more and more clear that these designs were not meant for the purpose we would be led to believe, though I’m sure you don’t need extensive research to figure that out. We are told they provide safety and security to our towns and city through prevention of crimes. So I ask what crimes?, Whos meant to be stopped? Who will be stopped? The street skating community is one group of people that end up feeling the effects of blatant takeover. However, it is this same group that shows us that there is always a way not, matter the obstacle. Hostile boards are an uncomfortable union of pleasure and pain that asks the question, who’s the aggressor?