Liverpool Biennial and the former Liverpool Mayor commissioned artist Koo Jeong A, in association with Wheelscape Skateparks, to design the UK's first glow-in-the-dark wheels park, ‘Evertro’, in partnership with Friends of Everton Park, the Land Trust and Liverpool Vision.
This permanent sculpture was a new public space for the city and a fully functional wheels park, open to skaters and BMX bikers to use and enjoy. ‘Evertro’ is part of the Everton Park Action Sports HUB.
In February 2014, leading South Korean artist Koo Jeong A and the designers from Wheelscape Skateparks worked with young people in Everton, North Liverpool and Liverpool city skaters to devise a new wheels park. Familiar skating forms and features were combined with new sculptural elements to create a unique space for experimentation. The design responds to its immediate surroundings, as well as drawing on Koo Jeong A’s references to diamond shapes and forms conceived through the artist’s interpretation of the area. In addition to ‘Evertro’, the Everton Park Action Sports HUB also incorporates a training area and BMX track.
This commission is part of a long-term commitment by Liverpool Biennial to work in Everton Park. The wheels park and Everton Park Action Sports HUB will be managed and maintained by The Land Trust, in conjunction with their community partners, Friends of Everton Park.
Koo Jeong A is well known for her minimalist art installations. Since the early 1990s, she has worked in various media, incorporating objects, still and moving images, audio elements, as well as scents within site-specific environments. In 2012 she designed and built OTRO, a glow-in-the-dark skate park commissioned by the Centre international d’art et du passage de l’île de Vassivière in France. Other major solo exhibitions of her work include: Koo Jeong A: 16:07, Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf (2012); Constellation Congress, Dia, USA (2010); and Koo Jeong A, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2008), amongst others.
Evertro in Action
Liverpool Biennial and Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson commissioned artist Koo Jeong A, in association with Wheelscape Skateparks, to design the UK’s first glow-in-the-dark wheels park, Evertro, in partnership with Friends of Everton Park, the Land Trust and Liverpool Vision.
Wheelscape brought their cameras along to the Evertro launch on 5 October 2015 to film skaters making use of this new public artwork.
This video features skateboarding from the likes of Channon Wallace, Ryan Gabison, Charlie ‘C-Cash’ Comrie, ‘Jersey’ Ryan Cunningham, Matt Wootton, Charlie Birch, one of the park’s designers Matt Popek, as well as many more.
Filmed by: Russell Heideman, Liam ‘Shicken’ Jefferies and Channon Wallace
Edited by: Russell Heideman