Brooklyn, NY, USA

Demolished 2001

I have stumbled upon your artwork after reading a post by an old friend. Plus, I love ‘old’ NY. It’s somewhat cliche, and I actually don’t ascribe to this way of thinking, in fact. I don’t truly love Old New York. But, that said, Nostalgia sure is a beautiful drug. I would like to propose a DIY NYC landmark known as the Volcano. Aside from it being memorialized as a skatepark, it was a peaceful place on the periphery of the city (Brooklyn) where you could collect your thoughts, see the city of Manhattan the way you wanted to. You could map out your desires and dreams while projecting them upon the skyline. 
Although funny enough, I never skated this location – I frequented it long before the Volcano.I had a lovely date there once, skipping rocks on an Autumnal day. Another time I drank a few beers down by the water – watching the tide rise and the lights shimmer under the bridge – in transit between Williamsburg house parties. I attended an underground performance full of unlicensed pyrotechnics. I ran and hid from the police down there after being chased for catching tags a few blocks away. Then it became a skatepark. It became a place for many other kids to gather; as I am sure, many other kids used it like me and differently. I love what the Volcano stands for/stood for in the face of corporate development, gentrification and (the ever ongoing) urban expansion. A respite. Matthew M.

The Volcano was a temporary illegal skateboarding destination in what was then the pre-gentrification Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal (BEDT), a onetime freight loading yard in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Volcano was frequently featured in skate magazines of the period and can also be seen in can also be seen in Deathbowl to Downtown: A documentary by Steve Rodriguez of 5Boro Skateboards. It was used as a case study in Daniel Campo’s The Accidental Playground, which explores the merits of unplanned public space “without fixed function or fixed schedule.” I was happy when this submission came in because I live and lived just down the block from the Volcano. The Volcano only lasted one summer before the city tore it down.

The painting is based on a photograph by Patrick O’Dell.

No. 314