PlayLab Builds Sterling Ruby-Inspired Skateable Structure for Frieze LA
Commemorating Vans and S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA.’s “Clash the Wall” collab.
PlayLab has plopped a bright orange pyramid in the middle of Los Angeles Art Week. The California-based design studio has joined forces with Vans to properly commemorate the skate imprint’s new OTW line; the OTW offshoot is rooted in collaborations with trailblazing creatives and just dropped off its first drop dubbed “Clash the Wall” in collaboration with Sterling Ruby‘s S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA.
Drenched in a bright orange hue – one of Ruby’s signatures, and also one of the colorways of the “Clash the Wall” sneaker – the pyramid is a fully functioning skate ramp. The ramp stands at a whopping 12 feet tall and rests – clashes, that is – amidst an otherwise bland, void-of-color, industrial complex.
The sustainability-focused studio tapped into its archive of recycled materials to craft the statement structure, compiling a mixture of scaffolding and Skatelite paper composite to build a split-level pyramidal ramp equipped with a wall behind it.
Playlab Inc
Playlab Inc
Playlab Inc
“We wanted to take an iconic form in skate culture, the hill, and interpret it into a surreal sculpture,” PlayLab’s cofounder Archie Lee Coates IV told Dezeen of how he looked to Southern California’s skate scene to inform the design.
“At the center of the installation is a pyramid, split and shifted to create angles and edges for skaters to play off of. This pyramid is placed within a massive cyc wall, which serves both as a skate feature and an immersive visual color field.”
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Take a closer look at the process of creating the structure in the Instagram post above, and stay tuned to Hypebeast for all of the latest Art Week updates.
