The Divine Decks Project, created by Jax local artist Zakriya Rabani, brings together an art installation with over 300 souls for viewers to experience in person.

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Used and broken skateboard decks are donated to Rabani from local skate shops in the area or city that the installation will take place. The skateboard decks will ultimately be on display in a maze-like installation that prompts viewers to walk through and discover a participatory element at the center.

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Rabani is pushing the notion of gift giving and a collective. He believes that when you give a gift,

you give a piece of yourself away with the gift, a part of your essence or soul. If that gift is not

reciprocated or lays dormant, then the spirit of that gift can die - losing the knowledge of that

essence.

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He wonders what kind of information would surface if all the “dead” skateboards could be

collected and reused? He aims to stir feelings of appreciation, interest, and imagination, but also

to collect the memories and data that have been preserved believing that skateboards can be a

model or reference, that they have the ability to show us symbols created by their owners,

representing human or social behavior.

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Each deck has an abundance of information, there have been marks made, gouges, scratches,

cracks, splinters, water damage and more. But there are also the cosmetics of each that can

capture the authenticity of the skater. The griptape(top) and graphics(bottom) are covered with

carefully placed stickers, drawings and graffiti, making every deck more unique. These symbols

and marks are a key in better understanding skate culture and its influence in our lives.

This installation is meant to bring forward the power of the gift of skateboarding, to help shed

light on how the gift of skateboarding is a bigger representation of who we are as a people and

who we can be.

 

There is a link in all of us and I believe that this Divine Decks Project emits human and

social behavior from skate culture in a way that can bend the boundaries of the art world.

This is what these installation do. They holds the essences of hundreds souls. These

skateboards become much more than just shaped wooden objects. They are a collective

constructed at a monumental scale, a scale that helps convey the significance of these

skateboards that now demand meditation and exaltation like an altar or a shrine.

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Additionally, this project has a book published alongside each installation that showcases the top and bottom of each skateboard donated for each installation. He was able to do this in Tampa for that

installation in 2018. The main goal is to do this project in multiple cities across the country and

acquire donated skateboard decks from those cities for a site-specific installation and

site-specific book. Currently, he does not have the funding to publish a book for the JAX iteration

of this series but he would love to get a few copies printed.

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“Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only

from experiencing them to the full.”-C.G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.

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COLLABORATORS:

Boards for Bros. 

Skatepark of Tampa

The Block Skate Supply

Kona Skate Park

Sunrise Surf Shop

Aqua East Skate Shop

5150 Skate Shop

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Divine Decks, Tampa Book Designer: Madeline Baker. Graphic Designer + Illustrator. madelinembaker.com

Photographer for Divine Decks, Tampa installation at CAM: http://patblocher.com

Photographer for Divine Decks, Jax: Jake Rabani & Zakriya Rabani