Above is an image by illustrator Jim Phillips, called ‘Screaming Hand’. It’s one of the most famous pieces of graphic design in the skateboarding culture, a piece of marketing that would still be in use as a company icon twenty-five years later.
Such is the fame of this image that Phillips himself relates this tale of an encounter with a skateboarder who had damaged his car:
“I looked at my car, and then at him, as he picked up his skateboard. I said, “I think I can see a dent!”
He looked at me in horror, and said “Oh no! No way… You’re not gonna pin that on me!” I followed with “I think I should be able to see your license!”
He looked even more horrified. “No way man! No way you’re gonna make me pay!”
I was feeling a little cocky, and wondered if I could pull it off, when I yelled, “LISTEN!… you don’t realise who you’re dealing with! I CREATED SCREAMING HAND!!!”
I held up my left hand, making it look anguished like my famous sticker logo for Speed Wheels Santa Cruz.
From Skateboard Stickers, by Munsen and Cardwell
After this, the skater pulls out his wallet, shows his license, and vows to always buy Santa Cruz skateboards. Can you image this happening with any of the top-flight contemporary artists of the art world? Perhaps Jeff Koons (“I CREATED PUPPY!!!”) or Damien Hirst?
Screaming Hand was adopted by the skateboard culture, and still to this day has an iconic status. It’s beyond my ability to say why, but it’s popularity is undeniable. Strangely, the unpopularity of contemporary art is also undeniable, as is it’s inability to create objects beloved of those outside the subculture of art appreciation.
Contemporary art is also usually ignorant of visual culture outside of it’s own milieu, unless it is “appropriating”. Therefore, the stunning imagery of Phillips goes unnoticed, as do many other striking images from contemporary culture. Although Fine Art prides itself on a visual language, with the advent of the internets acceleration of visual culture, it has retreated to a style-less ghetto of unskilled design and tasteless tat. But, as Screaming Hand shows us, there are other cultures.
