About the Exhibition
Anthony Goicolea’s Ramp is a sculptural and sound installation that continues the artist’s work of creating imaginative and abundant environments. This large skateboard ramp, or half pipe, is frozen and suspended in time while the natural elements of leafless trees and barren roots reclaim the abandoned man-made structure. In contrast, the half pipe is covered with repetitive markings, carvings, and graffiti tags that are almost obsessive and territorial in their repetition and seem like an urbanized form of instinctive animal traits and markings. A sound component can be heard from the piece of birds and skateboarders skating back and forth – both of which sound a bit like the respiratory system, pulse, or heartbeat of the sculpture. The abandoned ramp also serves as a reclaimed nesting ground for 10 white ptarmigan snow birds. This association of trees and birds in the skateboard ramp are elements of nature transplanted into an arctic urbanized landscape.
