JB. Magazine Blog : Flags For Ex-Girlfriends

Since his childhood Michael Leon has been fascinated with flags. For his first solo show in Germany he filled the Pool Gallery in Berlin with sewn up, dyed, printed and handpainted flags. www.michaelleonstudio.com

Michael Leon has been around in the skate business for ages. In the early nineties he designed his first pro model for New Deal. In the more recent stage of his career he has been working for brands like Nike SB, Girl Skateboards, DC and he co-founded Rasa Libre. Michael's style in the world of skateboarding and graphic art is exceptional. For his exhibition „Vexhall“ in September 2010 at Pool Gallery, one of our favourite spots in Berlin, he produced a series of handmade flags. „Vexhall“ comes from the term vexillology, meaning the scholarly study of flags. I had the chance to meet Michael and his friends the day of the opening and we had a great time together.

How was your time in Berlin with the opening of the show and where did you travel afterwards? It was fun. I met a lot of great people. Berlin seems like such a vibrant community. Low stress for the most part. Then I visited Copenhagen, Paris and London.

How many people have been involved in the process?
There were about 5 or 6 people who helped with sourcing fabric, sewing, screenprinting, dyeing, tie-dying, and doing embroideries.

What‘s the story behind the Vexhall animation film?
I wanted to create a world for the flags to live in. The video is a ten minute loop travelling over a planetary landscape, passing each flag along the way. Many of the flags are surrounded by other objects or buildings alluding to the stories behind them. The landscape is built in a way that if I do this exhibition again, the world can be expanded further and keep growing into the cities represented by these flags. I hired two animators, Paul and Hlynur, to build it.

First skulls, now flags. What is the fascination with flags?
For someone who uses language of graphic design in his artwork, the flag is a perfect vehicle or template. It's the same with designing skateboards. You are limited to that specific shape and to what that piece of wood represents.

What moves you to create your art, what happens within the process, in this case the flags?
Once I decide on the format it‘s a matter of taking notes and keeping scetchbooks. Once I have an idea for a flag I put it to work. So there were 40 or 50 different flags in different stages of completion throughout the process. I try not to think too much about a concept after it hits me, so I produced all of them. And then I edited for the show.

How did you get on your way to do what you do today: being an artist, graphic designer, musician, skateboard company owner?
I enjoy the entire process of creating and building. I don‘t know how all these elements came together but they are all part of enjoying the thinking about and making of artwork and I‘m lucky that parts of my life like skateboarding somehow can fit into this process.

Your company Stacks has turned into a real brand earlier this year. Can you still keep it as a playground or does taking care of business things change the artistic approach a bit?
There is no compromise with Stacks. We put 100% into every part of it. From graphics to board construction to team, and all the details inbetween. It‘s an effort to create a skate brand based on the fundamentals of skateboarding and creativity. We never need to do an artists' program because it‘s been built into the brand from the beginning. The business side is designed to further the creative side of things.

There is a similar freedom how you create things for Stacks as for Rasa Libre: a skate brand not necessarily being attached to skateboarding. What was the specialty about RL? And where do you think Stacks is ‘ranged in‘ for you?
Stacks is very much attached to skateboarding. So I wouldn‘t say that, but I think I know what you mean. Though we don‘t go into skate shops to be inspired. I think skaters are smarter than that. Rasa Libre had a very particular art direction that carried the brand. With Stacks, we are a little more open. Rasa Libre was based in San Francisco, and I think that influenced the visuals. Stacks is a southern california company. We live between the mountains and the ocean, there is a lot to be inspired by. We are a California company. It's a big part of where we start.

Which current & upcoming projects are you working on?
Right now I am working on exhibitions in Tokyo and Sydney scheduled for the spring, as well as on the 2011 Stacks products.

Interview: Jenne Grabowski JB. Magazine