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Canberra Today 11°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Art with a longing for the beach

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Are we missing something in the Canberra region? Could it be that our artists and the public are longing for the beach?

There must be something going on, with a curious summertime abandonment of good sense on the part of our artists.

First there is “Making Waves” at the Gallery of Australian Design in Commonwealth Place, 12 hollow wooden surfboards handcrafted by Peter Walker using a variety of techniques including joinery, laminating, bending, shaping, inlay, burning, laser cutting, painting and fibre glassing. These functional surfboards draw on the evolution of surfboard design history from Tom Blake’s innovations of the hollow board (1929) and the fin (1936) and Bob Simmons’ theories of hydro-dynamic flow (1940’s) up to present day shaping developments and experimental design. Several of the boards are collaborative efforts with SA ceramicist Gerry Wedd, industrial designer Quentin Gore and Victorian painter Phil Hayes.

Then there’s Bungendore Wood Works Gallery, about to transform the surrounds of the gallery into a beach, complete with sand, surfboards, hot dogs, fizzy drinks and ice creams and Hawaiian shirts. Bungendore will become a beach for the day on February 19, when there’ll be a display of historic surfboards, a real beach of sand imported all the way from Stockton, Newcastle; dance demonstrations and lessons on how to do the Surfers Stomp’, the Twist and the Limbo — ah, the ’60s.

Children can play in the sand dune, dig with buckets and spades, and take a splash in the mini-ocean; while hungry beachgoers will be catered for by the 1st Bungendore Scout Group and the best surf or Hawaiian shirt will win a prize.

Finally, the National Portrait Gallery’s latest exhibition is “Skater: Portraits” by Nikki Tole, who tells the stories of skateboarders from around the globe. While admittedly it’s not about surfboards, the Gallery’s senior curator Dr Christopher Chapman, seems too been seized with the same summertime urges.

Since July 2009, Scottish-born Melbourne photographer Nikki Toole has been making photographic portraits of skateboarders around the world. Her subjects are captured in still frontal pose against the textured backdrop of their urban environments. Nikki Toole was born in Scotland and now lives in Melbourne. She has studied art and design in London and Edinburgh, and has exhibited in Australia, Britain, US and Germany.

“Making Waves” at the Gallery of Australian Design until March 12.

“Beached In Bungendore,” on the Kings Highway in Bungendore Village, February 19 from 10am to 3pm.

“Skater: Portraits,” at the National Portrait Gallery until May 2.

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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