Every once in a while people have doubts in their lives. Is this the right job for me? What is important in life? Is there really a life after death? Was it right to sacrifice our newborn child to the terrible Cthulhu so He would teach me how to kickflip crooks while eating a peanut butter jelly bagel? Doubts are a fact of life - which is, admittedly, a strangely ironic statement. However, as some old French dude once said: Even if I can’t be sure that reality is really real, it’s still me who’s doubting. I think, therefore I am. Cogito ergo whatever, we didn’t pay attention in school all that much.
Anyway, skepticism seems to have informed Anthony Van Engelen’s latest board graphic for Fucking Awesome. From a point-blank view, it shows a young AVE smirking like he just received the blowjob of his life; looking at the board from a different angle, however, reveals the graphic to be a flip image, and beneath AVE’s portrait emerges the devilishly smiling metal skull of a Terminator. What is AVE trying to say? Is he a cyborg from the future? Was he sent by Skynet to purge shitty mall brands from the world? And who gives a fuck? Sometimes, a great graphic is a great graphic. And sometimes, a skateboard is just for skateboarding. After all, it’s still you who does the kickflip. I skate, therefore I am.
In fact, Fucking Awesome’s latest drop is mostly defined by ambivalence (oh, the irony again). Dylan Rieder’s class photo, which is available on two t-shirts and as a board graphic, shows a kid in a leather jacket. Is it really a young Dylan or rather the world’s smallest Mafioso, the cherubs seem to wonder as they stare thoughtfully into the air. And what about that golden Buddha statue, available as a board graphic and a t-shirt print? Does the wise Siddhartha Gautama have the right answers? Or is meditation the only way to relieve oneself of doubt as one tries to enter the Nirvana, the state of oblivion?
The only items offering something close to certainty are the black, white and green logo hoodies and the black and white t-shirts. They blatantly state Fucking Awesome, in red on white and black on black lettering, as if to say: Don’t worry about it. It’s gonna be okay. But will it be okay? Will the doubt ever stop nibbling away your sanity as you descend ever deeper into madness? The only thing we know for sure is that the Fucking Awesome drop is available at Bonkers from Saturday, June 11, both in store and online. But who knows for how long? Better be quick for Descartes also said: I shop, therefore I am.
