When Nike Sb reached out to me with the idea of dedicating a wall to the achievements of Keep Pushing Co - a London based inclusive skateboarding, art and music events company - I was really excited to see what we could create for their 20 Years of Nike Sb exhibition at the Hoxton Arches gallery space.
I created a collective of gender queer artists, skateboarders, musicians and rollerskaters to be showcased on the wall amongst photographs of a new space the Keep Pushing Co were running called Unit M Space.
Not wanting to push too hard with branding (an exhibition dedicated to Nike Sb doesn’t need a great deal more branding in my opinion) I put the skateboarding character in a pair of Nike skate shoes, but kept the others in simple unbranded outfits inspired by the London’s queer fashion, arts and music scenes.
Of course I included the Keep Pushing ghost icon that I had designed for the company previously - and added in a few other Queer Positive designs inspired by London’s flourishing queer tattoo scene, which has a broad crossover with the growing queer skateboarding scene too.
As I had also designed both the Keep Pushing Co official logo, and the logo for Unit M Space, these were included on the wall too!
The result was an incredible showcase of both Keep Pushing Co’s achievements and Nike Sb’s legacy. Having worked with both companies before on various projects aimed at making art and skateboarding more inclusive, I was stoked to be able to bring the two together under one roof for this incredible show.
I hope you enjoyed learning about my work for this project.
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Rae is an intersex, trans, non-binary artist and activist from London, UK.
Working across multiple disciplines, their work calls into question the very foundations of predisposed physical, biological and metaphysical notions upon which prevailing contemporary culture is built.
Rae’s work highlights intersex, trans and neurodiverse experiences, places non binary bodies as visually centric, and transcends intersections between colonialist and imperialist domination of gender, race, culture, environment, mental health, neurodivergence and sex.
