When a skateboarder snaps their board in the effort to perfect their trick, the broken wooden deck will likely end up in a dumpster in Japan. To the sculptor Haroshi, however, these discarded wooden decks are the perfect source of inspiration for his art pieces. A skateboarding enthusiast since his teens, Haroshi collects thousands of these discarded skate decks and transforms them into detailed 3D sculptures.
The color palette for his sculptures is entirely natural to skateboards, as skateboard manufacturers often dye the individual maple wood layers in bright neon colors. When Haroshi places hundreds of these decks on top of each other, the resulting sculptures contain intricately detailed patterns that resemble a high-tech digital mosaic.
Borrowing from Ancient Traditions
The engineering behind Haroshi’s sculptures draws on elements of an ancient Japanese craft. Skateboards come in various thicknesses depending on the manufacturer, yet Haroshi must understand their anatomy to craft his sculptures by hand from wooden layers that adhere with wood glue.
Once Haroshi has assembled the wooden block from skate decks, he uses carving tools to sculpt his masterpieces. This sculpting technique shares similarities with a craft from Japan in the 12th century, when artisans crafted massive wooden Buddha statues. These ancient artisans used a craft known as yosegi-zukuri.
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These ancient artisans would drop a small crystal ball into the chest of the wooden Buddha to give it a “soul.” Haroshi takes the same approach with his sculptures. Before he seals his sculpture, he buries a metal skateboard part in the wooden creation.
Giving Waste a Second Life
The work of sculptor Haroshi has caught the attention of several brands and art galleries from Japan to New York. He has created massive sculptures, skate trophies, and even detailed replicas of fine art pieces, all from scrap wooden skateboards from his community.
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The durability of the skateboard’s wooden plies in the face of constant impact is exhibited in the second lives that these wooden crafts are given. Haroshi’s art shows that innovation does not have to come from creating something entirely new. Sometimes it is enough to find a beautiful way to carry on the spirit of another subculture’s creations.
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