For artist Eloise Dörr, breaking a deck isn’t the end of the story
- Text by Alex King
- Photography by Eloise Dörr
Breaking a deck ranks alongside stacking it, cracking a truck or ripping the sole off your tattered shoes, as one of those frustrating aspects of skateboarding. While indivisible from the whole positive experience, it’s still a minor ballache and there’s no way of getting around it.
But artist Eloise Dörr’s new show Leftovers demonstrates that breaking a deck doesn’t have to be the end of its story – or the end of a skater’s relationship with their treasured piece of maple ply. Instead of throwing them in the bin, Eloise has taken broken decks and developed artworks in conversation with their former owners.
“I chose the medium of old decks because I love giving objects a new lease of life by making them into illustrative pieces,” she explains. “Whilst also doing it as a collaboration between me and the previous owner of the board. Each one is different and has its own story, which is a theme I love in all contexts.”
Eloise’s signature silhouette characters will be doing their thing at Parlour Presents on Thursday September 3, showing the love for skateboarding’s less-celebrated elements, like stacking it or trying – and failing – to capture a trick. Or, in her words: “Relishing in the innocence and amusements of skateboarding, spending most of their time falling over.”
Eloise Dörr’s Leftovers is at Parlour Presents, 59 Hackney Road E2, Thursday September 3 from 7pm. Free beer will be flowing. Hit the FB event here.
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