Iconography

Abstract

O’Connor observes how religion manifests in skateboarding’s visual culture by addressing the artwork, or graphics, placed on skateboards. Through a dialogue with skateboard artists, skateboarders, and one veteran professional skateboarder, he looks at how skateboard graphics communicate the sociophobics of Christian religious tradition, operate as satire, provide allegory to popular and skateboard culture, and also work as devotional products. Combining these elements, he argues that graphics are a form of decorative design that is nihilistic, intended for functional use and ultimately destruction. Thus, skateboarders have a specific relationship with their boards, and by extension their graphics, as objects with which they physically connect and ride. Religious graphics are seen to operate as extensions of identity courting danger, critiquing society, and representing piety. He concludes by addressing some potential problems for religious graphics, particularly for Islamic religious skateboard design.