No, you can't skateboard in the gallery. But you can experience the art and culture of the skateboarding crowd in an unusual new exhibit at the Mendel Art Gallery.

Godzilla vs. Skateboarders is a show of artwork that examines the space in which skateboarders operate -- which is often the very space where society does not want them.

Take the kitchen, for instance. One of the items in the exhibit is a video called 'Homewrecker' in which the artist skateboards around an empty apartment, making some nifty jumps off the kitchen counters and over the open oven door.

It makes you wonder, what's so bad about skateboarding on the sidewalk anyway?

"Skateboarding in the urban space is an act of defiance because we don't sanction it," says gallery spokesperson Alexandra Stratulat. "Contemporary art is pushing the line and questioning why we make the rules that we do."

But is skateboarding art? It is if you make it the starting point for an examination of mainstream society and the values we live by. Skateboarding is also a culture full of art in the form of drawing, doodling, comics and hand-made magazines called 'zines'.

Godzilla vs. Skateboarders was curated by the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina and includes artists of international reputation. In order to build on the theme, the Mendel created a companion exhibit to showcase the artwork of young people in Saskatoon, called Revolution Sessions *: sk8art.

This exhibit includes paintings, drawings, video and photographs primarily using skateboarding as a theme. But not Chris Kuzma in his nostalgic and dreamy paintings titled Home, which, according to Stratulat, reflect his experience of growing up and moving away from home. The whimsical character in his paintings shows a cultural connection to cartoons.

The Mendel also asked students at Mount Royal Collegiate to create scale models of their 'dream' skateboarding parks. It would be safe to say that most of the models would be death defying in real life -- like those utopian golf calendars with the perfect green on top of a mountain -- but they include nice touches like the park benches made of popsicle sticks in the model called Reprezzentin, with graffiti declaring "sk8ordie!!".

The skateboarding exhibit is popular with school children who are encouraged to imagine a world in which everyone skateboards -- including the school principal.

"Far too often we forget about the youth element * in society, they are invisible to us or an annoyance," says Stratulat. "We are recognizing that they have ideas and opinions, and they have a culture of their own."

After all, she points out that the counter-culture of today could become accepted practice by the next generation.

The exhibition is sure to draw hundreds of youth on the final day, June 6. The grounds of the Mendel will be transformed with a mobile skateboard park and an afternoon rock concert. There will be an artists' panel on 'zine' making and a sale of items reflecting the skateboarding subculture.

This article was originally entitled "Skateboard exhibit drops in at Mendel" and was found at http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/ news/story.html?id=fc0d8e11-392b-4c93-95ce-3ae93e22130d

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