New Castle Skatepark Mosaics

When we designed the New Castle Skatepark, we wanted to add as many colors and decorative elements as the budget would allow. This included a Robert Indiana pop art inspired railing that wraps the bowl area using the words Ride, Roll & Skate. The specific Robert Indiana pieces that inspired the railing were his DIE and EAT circular paintings that use contrasting colors like red/green, and orange/blue. I wanted the mosaics to mimic the circular theme as a homage to the wheel, use bold colors, and feature a skater at the center.

Bart changed the design of the park drastically in the first few weeks, making the whole park bigger and separating the bowl flow area from the street zones. I saw an opportunity on the large bank in the street area, reminding me of the location of the mosaic in Skørping, Denmark. I then completed the mosaics in my studio in Bloomington, and they were installed on the last day Hunger was onsite.

I choose to use a skater pushing because I find pushing to be the simplest and most beautiful acts in skateboarding. Everyone starts with this one simple act, and then goes from there individually into their own flow and pattern. The orange figure is a woman, the blue a man, and they both are encircled with a red border. I love using red in skateparks because it glows from a distance and breaks up the blues and grey of the concrete.— Christy Wiesenhahn

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