Ben Gore is a polymath in the skate art scene.
He’s collaborated on many projects, including the incredible GripThumb exhibition which is slowly moving its way around the UK. Plus he has his own artwork to think about, including photo-books and zines. Between these, Ben Gore found some time to talk to Skateism about what he does and what’s next for him.
First up, can you give us a brief idea of each string to your bow?
There’s quite a few strings, I like to keep my fingers in alot of pies. Mainly, I’m a photographer and artist. I like drawing pictures and taking photos. Out of that evolved Blue Monday Press, which is an independent arts distributor I set up to sell my zines or art projects.
I’ve used Blue Monday Press as a way to publish my own work and also as a platform to do collaborative projects, like Your Favourite Rapper which was an exhibition and zine featuring a variety of illustrators drawing a portrait of their favourite rapper. I’ve also been involved with Grip Thumb, an exhibition series that features art made on the griptape of skateboards
So you’ve made quite a splash with some of those projects, especially grip thumb, which happened this year and had lots of other artists we’ve worked with before featuring in it. How did that project come about?
Grip Thumb was the idea of Al Hodgson, the guy behind Owl Skateboards. I did the Radulthood launch exhibition in B Rad gallery, a DIY gallery in the hallway of my old house, and we met there. He spoke to me about the idea of doing a show of grip art and it all went from there. We’ve done shows in Brighton, Bristol, and London so far.
GRIPTAPE IS ESSENTIALLY A BLANK CANVAS
The idea behind the show was all about embracing the individuality and creativity of skaters. Different people can all go to a skate shop and walk out with the exact same setup, but if you want to express something with your board itself, the griptape is essentially a blank canvas.
It’s really rad seeing the work different people create, each with the same starting material, and how each skater’s personality comes through with the way they creatively use griptape.
So you’re planning on continuing to put on these Grip Thumb events? What have been some of your favourite contributions so far?
Ideally, 100%. It’d be nice to make it an annual show. It’s a fair bit of work so it just end ups depending on how busy Al or I am. They’re super fun events and it’s always rad to see the work. My favourites.. It’s tricky because I like all the work. I really like Eloise Dorr’s and Tommy Bold’s work so maybe I’ll go for theirs. Andrew Finch’s piece at the London show was really rad too.
Griptape art is increasingly prevalent, with people even laminating photos in clear grip so as to have full pictures on their boards. Do you think this is a permanent addition to the culture?
I think it probably has always been there, people used to cut up their griptape to put it on boards even in like the 80s, and I think it’s just become more regular nowadays.
I HOPE IT’S A PERMANENT ADDITION TO THE FUTURE
I hope it’s a permanent addition in the future too because I really like seeing how people decorate their boards. It’s great seeing a whole bunch of grip art when you’re out skating especially. Everyone’s got their own special style of how to approach it.
So let’s take a step back and discuss Blue Monday. When did you set that up and why?
I set Blue Monday Press up about a year and a half ago. Originally, it was just as a publisher to put out zines and books, but we now make t shirts, pins, and other goodies too. I set it up as a way to publish, release, and sell stuff I thought was rad, whether that be my own work or other people’s artwork. The logic behind business side was to have a platform to create affordable art, products or tees featuring emerging artists.
So who has featured so far on Blue Monday roster?
We’ve worked with a bunch of rad artists so far. In the shop, we’ve got a pin by Tommy Bold, who runs the very rad stay rad skates and creates great illustrations. We’ve a Gonz tee with an incredible portrait by Joel Benjamin that featured in his Skaters zine. There’s another fun tee by my buddy and expert doodler Alexander Norton. We got to do a tee with the great Eloise Dorr in the past too aswell, and with the good homie Jay Bartlett.
Those are the people we’ve directly collaborated with but we’ve featured loads of others in the collaborative zines, like Your Favourite Rapper, or the shows like Grip Thumb.
Your Favourite Rapper is as it sounds, a sketch of your favourite rapper, right?
Yeah, the premise of Your Favourite Rapper was basically to have a big variety of illustrators each draw their favourite rapper in their own style. It was super fun to see who everyone chose and how they captured their likeness.
Which leads me onto the inevitable question: who is your favourite rapper?
The ones I drew for the project were Nas and Biggie, but I’d probably say Andre 3000 is my favourite. He’s done some of my all time favourite verses, I love his style, flow, and the content he raps.
So let’s talk your photography specifically – you recently launched a new photo-book right?
Yeah, I launched my second photobook Goodbye, Blue Monday at Doomed Gallery a couple of months ago.
Now this is a great example of your work, and it looks very heavy in concept – can you explain a bit about the impetus behind these photos
Goodbye, Blue Monday is a collection of symbols of mortality and maturity that I found in the world around me. I started putting the book together around the time I went freelance last year, and I started getting a bit obsessed with time. I was suddenly in control of all of my time and I started to notice signs of ageing or death around me.
I STARTED NOTICING SIGNS OF AGEING OR DEATH AROUND ME
It kind of comes from the idea that we’re perpetually stranded in the present ever moving slowly towards the end of our time, and when you’re aware of those limits, what do you want to spend your time doing? The photos in the book are all fleeting, frozen moments, that were taken with those ideas all swirling around my head.
I guess that may also lead to a bigger question of, why photography? For this project, and for you generally?
I think the reason I like photography is it’s ability to record reality. The camera is essentially a mechanical device that you use to capture a moment and serves as evidence of a particular point in time from the photographer’s perspective. It’s a quick and easy process but it’s really interesting seeing how different photographers approach it. The two photographers that got me into photography in the first place were Larry Clark and Fred Montagne (aka French Fred). Their work is totally different but the key was it was showing me the world from a different perspective than I was used to, whether that be the arty side of skating or the gritty scenes that Larry Clark shot. Photography is a way for me to share perspectives on the world around me, and it’s also a kind of treasure hunting. You go out with a camera and you’re scavenging for things that you find interesting or catch your eye.
The way I approach all my photography projects is just to shoot. I tend to shoot for a few months before I even start putting photos together in a series. When I put stuff together, a theme emerges in hindsight and I’ll shoot for a few more months with that idea in mind. So, it’s not as much of a case of I had an idea then I tried to find things to visualize it, it’s more that I shot, noticed a common thread, then followed it.
So how do you apply your photography to skateboarding?
The skate photography I’ve done is similar but different. It’s still a case of documenting the world around me but it’s more about how a certain skater uses the space they’re in. It’s about the creativity of the skater and how they approach obstacles int he urban landscape creatively.
IT’S ABOUT THE CREATIVITY OF THE SKATER
Pedestrians will sit on a bench and have a coffee, never thinking of how it could be ollied over, grinded or manualed, but a skater can see all these alternate ways to use the object and the space around it. My first zine was actually all about this. It was called Concrete Canvas and was all about that idea of the skater moving through the city creatively.
How do you feel that skateboarding and creation go hand in hand, particularly as on the surface skateboarding seems destructive?
I guess the key is the motive. Skating itself can be destructive, grinding can wear down the edge of a marble ledge, but the thought process itself is where the creativity lies. All aspects of creativity have destructive elements, if you do a painting then you’ve ruined that perfect piece of white paper but you’ve also transformed it into something else in it’s own right. With skating aswell, it’s not as if when you grind a ledge it ceases to be functional, you can still sit on it, it’s just slightly more worn. The destruction is the aftermath of the creative process, it’s not the motive.
So what’s next for you dude?
I’m kind of in between projects at the moment but I just want to keep making things. Hopefully there’ll be a second edition of Radulthood soon. Radulthood was basically a skate zine I made a while back, which focused on the experience and creativity of skaters, and I’m in the very early planning stages of that. I’d love to work with some skate companies in the future though, so I’ve been thinking about some designs ect. that I might like to pitch in the future.
Well Skateism wish you all the best, Ben Gore. Keep us in the loop.
