Drexel Gallery Transforms into Motion Responsive Pop-Up Skateboard Park

The site-specific pop-up skate park installation features an immersive, motion responsive projection.

There may not be any more skateboarding at LOVE Park, but skaters will now be welcome at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert St.) in Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, thanks to a new exhibition opening this spring. Philly Radness: An Interactive Pop-Up Skatepark, a site-specific pop-up skate park installation featuring an immersive, sound and motion responsive projection, will transform the Gallery into a skateboarding oasis from April 5 – May 22.

The skate-able, projection-mapped, generative art sculpture will be complemented by a photo and video show curated by Philadelphia-based skate videographer Chris Mulhern, to create a multimedia representation of skateboard culture in Philadelphia. Visitors are encouraged to come watch and, if they know how, to skate.

The gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. An opening reception and skateboarding demonstration will take place on Thursday, April 7, from 5-7 p.m.

Created by multimedia artist Eric Cade Schoenborn and professional skateboarder Ed Selego, this is the second iteration of the Phenomenal Radness project after its debut in Miami in 2013. “We turned life into an animated GIF and skated it,” the collaborators said. Video footage and images from the installation in Miami are available at www.phenomenalradness.com.  

“Eric and Ed’s wonderfully rich and whimsical installation will pay homage to Philadelphia’s place in skateboarding history and let the city’s skateboarders create art while they do what they love,” said Karen Curry, executive director of the Westphal College’s Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies, who was influential in bringing the show to Drexel.

Eric Cade Schoenborn is a Miami-based artist who blends technology, art and collaboration for fun and social change. His collaborations have generated millions of page views and engaged a wide spectrum of audiences, online and offline. He has applied his unique design, development and business experience to numerous NGOs, startups, journalism ventures, artists, cultural tastemakers, entrepreneurs and innovators worldwide.

Ed Selego owns MIA Skateshop in South Beach, Miami. Selego has been skating professionally since the 1990s and has affiliations with Habitat, Adio, Planet Earth and more. Thrasher Magazine called his part in video “One Step Beyond” a “classic."