Eesu Lehtola’s work Lines shows that public space is not neutral: it is governed by norms and rules. Skateboarding makes this visible. It opens up a space to new meanings and reminds us that shared environments can have as many uses as there are users.
For most city residents, infrastructure and architecture are seen first and foremost through services and businesses. For skaters, the most interesting aspects of a space are its structures and surfaces and the paths that run through them (in skating terms, the lines), not so much the intended function of the space.
Eesu Lehtola has been skateboarding for 30 years and has through it found his way into art, creative work and culture. Lehtola is from Kotka. His works are made of plywood, which is also the main material used to make skateboards. The three-dimensionality of the works reflects the multidimensionality of skateboarding and the spaces used for it.
For his works, Lehtola skated in the public spaces of his childhood home town of Kotka and recorded a wide range of data about his movements: the routes he took, the time spent in particular spaces, average and peak speeds, and calories burned. This material served as a basis for the abstract art and video works that will be included in the exhibition, as well as for a short documentary film that will be released separately later. They visualise spaces, the paths taken through them and other stored information.
In addition to his own design agency, Lehtola is a partner in a film production company and runs a cross-artistic skateboarding and street photography brand. His short-form documentary film Bright White Light, which he directed in cooperation with Henna Välkky, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024, and it has been included in competitive categories at almost 40 film festivals around the world. Lehtola has give lectures at institutions such as Tallinn Fotografiska, LAB Institute of Design and Fine Arts and Aalto University, and he is a member of the board of Grafia. Lehtola’s illustrations have been featured in publications such as The Leaders in Contemporary Illustration and Pictoria – The Best Contemporary Illustrators Worldwide.
More about Eesu: eesu.fi