Fast Forward: Skateboards & Paddles

It’s entirely appropriate that non-Indigenous artists are included along with First Nations and Native American artists in Fast Forward: Skateboards & Paddles, since the annual winter invitational’s theme emerges out of a non-Native pastime, skateboarding. Canoe paddles are added, newly decorated, to complement the boards covered in tribal ornaments and signs. Some designs mimic gra ti while others adapt formline totem-pole imagery to the curves of skate decks and carved paddles. Canadian artists exhibit alongside Americans to underscore meaningless national borders.