Recently, you might have come across Lucy Adams’ new pro model. With a daring message and a mesmerizing shine, it’s hard not to stop and look at it. This new LovenSkate board is a collaboration with Iranian born artist, based in East-London, Aida Wilde. Wilde has been a veteran in the practice of serigraphy. With an infinite amount of possibilities, she uses it to spread fun, bold, yet, striking messages. I reached to Wilde wanting to learn about the process behind Adams’ new graphic and using art as a tool for social change. So here we go for the art of screen-printing with Aida Wilde.
Words Emanuele Barbier
There is something really satisfying about screen printing. Watching the ink spreading so smoothly on the mesh is almost hypnotizing. Though the best part has to be the reveal, seeing the finished design. It’s always been intriguing to me how it can be used to create a simple, monochrome design, or, an intricate multi-coloured image.
Aida Wilde started her craft when she finished school, that was over 25 years ago. That’s more than a quarter of a century of serigraphy! Yet, that doesn’t stop her from loving every minute of it. “Every day is learning, still up to this day, […] the more you do it, the more new techniques you want to try out.”
“For me, it’s really important that this skateboard is handmade and printed in London, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
While the process might seem to be a walk in the park, you can’t cut corners. Wilde points out it’s not easy to cheat or do it quickly. “Sometimes the simplest things can the most difficult to print,” she says.
Her passion for the art of screen printing came from painting, photography and collage. “The medium allows me to further push these techniques and still up to this day, I start off by photographing and piecing things together,” she mentions regarding her fine art projects.
She is currently based in Hackney Wick, where she moved in the mid-2000s. The suburb, which had a high concentration of artist studios, was harshly hit with the 2008 recession and the 2012 Olympics gentrification. That marked the beginning of her political commentary pieces and continued work on gentrification. Today, it is hard for her to envision her work if she wasn’t Hackney Wich then.
Through her work, which is quite diverse, she produces both text-based pieces like the “I am the Queen of F*cking Everything” and fine art prints. However, working on a skateboard graphic was a first for her and that came with its own set of challenges.
“The thing is, I think if I was there, it would be way more sparkly!”
The art of screen printing has been used on several media since it begun in 1911. It’s most commonly applied to flat surfaces but you and I both know, a board isn’t flat, or at least, not the ones from our era.
The current design went through several mock-ups. The longest part was adapting Wilde’s text, from a previous series of hers, to the board. Doing the word placement right was important, particularly the word ‘F*ckin’, making sure it isn’t too obvious but still striking. “There was a version where we slipt the word and that’s when we started thinking about how we can disguise the lettering,” she says.
“I think [Stuart Smith’s] main concern was being clever, as well as, retaining its commercial liability without offending people.” She adds snickering, “but I think if you’re going to ride around on a board like that, you have to be a certain type of person anyway.”
Wilde and Stuart Smith, owner of LovenSkate, met back in the mid-2000s at the beginning of their serigraphic practices. So when they reconnected after a while, she was really excited to work on this project.
Another unplanned challenge was printing. Due to the confinement, Wilde, Smith and Adams weren’t able to meet and had to bounce back ideas on colours, effects and glitter, via emails and photos. “The thing is, I think if I was there, it would be way more sparkly!” she laughs. Still given the conditions, it doesn’t prevent her from looking back and describing the process as very collaborative and lovely.
The board’s unique message is further accentuated with the colour choice. If you ask me, black and gold can never go wrong! It was Lucy Adams and Stuart Smith who picked on the colours. “Every time Stuart did a mock-up, I always said my opinion but made sure that at the end of the day, Lucy had the final say,” says Wilde.
Now, you might be thinking, ‘ok cool, but who is the queen of f*cking everything?!” Well, it is as much Lucy Adams, as Aida Wilde, as anyone womxn for that matter. The idea originated when Wilde heard her friend’s song and partially from her reputation in Hackney Wick for her years of experience. (The song is a banger and you should give it a listen for a taste of British garage rock n’ roll!)
“I initially did it for my friend I suppose, but also, for all of us queens in Hackney Wick,” Wilde says. She didn’t like the idea of there being only one ‘queen’, so she gifted the print to her friend and eventually came to share it with all the powerful women she meets.
The board represents to Wilde an opportunity to be part of a community she has long loved. She recalls her dream of being a pro-skater when she was skating at the age of 12-13. In a sense, this project is a full circle for her. “I feel like I managed to fulfill a little bit of my dream, even if it’s just a graphic,” she says.
Haven’t we all dreamed at some point to do a graphic for a board? I want to believe that all skaters have, at one point, created their dream graphic. While Wilde as always dreamt to be part of the skateboarding industry, she says she wouldn’t have done it for the more corporate companies. “For me, it’s really important that this skateboard is handmade and printed in London, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she says.
“Also the fact that Lucy, who is a pro-skater, actually wants it, makes the whole difference.” For Wilde that means it won’t become yet another fashion object, hanging on a wall accumulating dust. Rather it will be represented and used by skaters. Very much like her opinion of what political art should be.
“If you’re going to make political art, you should stick to what you know and what is affecting you.”
Like all things that trend, political art has been copied and abused for the easy attention it can bring. When we look at art, or any content for that matter, finding who is at the source is crucial. It’s an important information telling whether the creator is copying or producing from lived experiences. Something that Aida Wilde incorporates daily in her work.
Remembering how she first got involved in political commentary, she cannot disassociate it from the impact Hackney Wick has had on her. “8-9 years ago, in England, it wasn’t so fashionable to be doing political art,” she says, precising, the focus was on street art then. After the events of 2008 and the Olympics gentrification, she describes her attitude as going into a panic mode.
“It was instant, organic, I wasn’t thinking about how [the art] would like in the end. The medium is the message, you put it out.” Screen printing at its core is quite a good medium for printing in mass, which comes in handy for street political art. “With political art, most of the time you’re not supposed to think about what it looks like, it’s very responsive,” Wilde says.
“If you’re going to make political art, you should stick to what you know and what is affecting you.”
If the art of screen printing interests you, Wilde suggests to take a course to get a feel of it. While it is a physically straining craft that comes with a fair share of cleaning and grafting, she advises not to be discouraged. “The end reward can be very gratifying. The process teaches you patience and perseverance,” she says. If you aren’t dissuaded, it would be good for you to pursue longer courses and find open studios in the long run. A lot of time will be spent on finding your style but some, there is nothing like learning from your mistakes.
Feature image Jenny Lewis.
