Some of the freshest artwork we've recently seen involves taking something old and making it new again. In this case, artist Haroshi took old skateboard decks and carefully crafted them into fresh pieces of art. HARVEST by Haroshi is an exhibition at the PLSMIS Gallery in Tokyo which showcases his collective work – expect to see everything from bears to moose to Mario's head!
As he states, “Skate decks eventually see its life shortened by snapping, cracking and/or wearing out. Purchasing new decks is a never ending cycle and this was evident by the tower of old decks that were reaching to the ceiling of my room. We can't throw away these decks because they hold sentimental meanings to us. I looked at these unusable decks every day and thought there must be something I can make with these. I decided to make some accessories with the old decks and this was the birth of Harvest. The works of Harvest are through the perspectives of a skater and as an artist. As a skater, I want to take responsibility of reusing skateboards when they were no longer useable. Also, as an artist I want to explore the possibilities of what can be done with skateboards. We see the care and effort that a skater can have for his/her deck and we also acknowledge the origins of a skateboard. We believe that if the small things we do can connect to sustainability then we're doing something right. We'd be satisfied in our effort when people look at products and start thinking of ways to recycle.”
Sources: [Hypebeast, Harvest by Haroshi and Brandon Shigeta]
