Orla Neiland
![Orla Neiland’s Portrait](https://creative2022.griffith.ie/media/pages/graduates/orla-neiland/55b80e9c91-1653405694/orla-neiland-1-600x.jpg)
Airborne
From the outside, skateboarding culture can be difficult to understand. Often misrepresented in the public’s eye, skateboarders are most commonly associated with anti-social behaviour.
Airborne sets out to challenge this view by celebrating the lifestyle and the aesthetic that skate culture offers. Spending time in skate parks during the creation of this work, I witnessed first-hand the highly charged atmosphere in this environment. As skaters spend time mastering their hobby and constantly evolving their repertoire of skills, it is clear to me that this is a form of escapism.
Skateboarding is not just a past time or a hobby, for some it becomes so much more. It influences the way people dress, how they think, even changes the way they perceive the world. For many, it’s a way of life.
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