Sport is deeply rooted in culture and context, its own or that of the community it emerges from. Mark Igloliorte often relocates the visual vernacular of the skatepark into the exhibition space, in his piece Red Rail(2004) for example. Recreating a cherry red flat rail in a gallery, or drawing and collaging on skateboard decks, the artist transforms and translates the physicality of the global sport into sculptural objects. Even without the scraping sounds, the sliding noises, the tumbling falls, or whoops of joy, these pieces anticipate a kinesthetic playing field, an arena of concrete, steel, and wooden surfaces meant for gliding bodies, leaping into flight, and landing on four wheels.
