Skateboarding has always been the driving influence for acclaimed Japanese artist, Haroshi. For the past 20 years, the Tokyo-based creative has paved his own lane in the art world for creating intricate sculptures that hark to mystical characters found in Japanese history and pop culture today, but crafted using hundreds of recycled skate decks, resulting in weathered figures that appear to jump out of mythology.
For his latest project, Haroshi created a one-off sculptural character for his hero, none other than arguably the most celebrated figure in the history of skateboarding, Tony Hawk. “This is my dream project and I am happy to see it come true!” noted Haroshi via Instagram. Taking cues from the head in the Birdhouse logo, the artist created a small totemic figure, almost like a wooden skeleton of Hawk’s choice muse, but done so in an array of recycled decks, that together, form curvilinear patterns and facial features throughout the body and face.
The sculpture is part of Haroshi’s GUZO series, which recently in the past featured in a marble collaboration with Avant Arte, as well as a solo exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch New York back in 2022.
