Not all of these works are particularly new, but I want to point out a series by The Wa where he’s been improving cities in subtle ways that might not be immediately apparent as art, until he brings the results of his interventions into the gallery as sculpture. These works by The Wa are reminiscent of Brad Downey‘s CCTV Takedown series, but with a more labor-intensive process and a slightly different focus on what in the city modification. At the end of the day though, both series attempt to improve the general public’s experience in cities by providing more freedom in public spaces and both series involve highlighting the work through sculptures that get displayed indoors. Which is not to say that I don’t love what The Wa is doing as much as I love Downey’s series. On an aesthetic level, I actually prefer the sculptural end product that The Wa produces.
The sculpture shown above, Skate-anti-skate, was made from metal “skate stopper” pieces that The Wa removed from the street in Berlin in 2011. If you don’t skate, you may not have noticed things like this before, or you may have thought nothing of them, but skaters know them all too well. The seemingly functionless metal studs that often break up otherwise long and smooth sections of marble or metal in public spaces are there to make those spots difficult or impossible for skateboarders to skate on. For this sculpture, The Wa removed some skate stoppers to salvage the materials and reassemble them into something that looks like a skateboard. See the GIF below for before and after shots of where he got the material from:
