Search Results for beach culture


Dominant Wave Theory, review

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“Dominant Wave Theory, Photography by Andy Hughes”
published by Booth-Clibborn Editions,

Dominant Wave Theory
Photography by Andy Hughes
Reviewed by Stephen Brigdale
July 2006

 
This forward thinking photography book features over 150 photographs by the artist Andy Hughes made on different beach locations from California to Western Cornwall. The book explores and examines the relationship of beach waste as both an object of visual enquiry and as a reference to the global environmental crisis. “Dominant wave theory”, we are told, ” is loosley based on a scientific term used in the prediction and observation of wave models”. The book sets out to parallel this idea visually through the observation of the beach as a local site for the interplay of nature and consumer culture.
Through extraordinarily focused colour photographs of found waste objects, the reader is offered tangible stilled moments of reflection on the nature of these objects and left to ponder their place in the world now that their original purpose has been washed (eroded) away. This extensive archive of images forms the core of the project with the design and development of the book by David Carson working to heighten the visual scope and pace of the work. This is apparent in the scale, ordering and pairing of the images, creating thoughtful and revealing relationships throughout the book.
The photographs are complemented by a collection of essays by five eminent writers, who are here linked through the common thread of the project but coming from a wide range of perspectives. They discuss ideas connected with the beach from eco-activism through to cultural theory and marine biology; their contribution extends and puts into context ideas initiated within the photographs.
The essays open with a discussion by Dr Christopher Short, of the visual context of Hughes’s work as a contemporary art practice. The wider implications of these photographs, in terms of art history through formalism and the development of modernism in St Ives (Hughes is based in West Cornewall), are speculated upon together with tourism in this locale to draw anthropological perspectives. The political dimensions of environmental activism; the tackling of waste and changing our relationship to waste generation, are developed in writings by Chris Hines and environmental advocate Joshua Karliner. The latter in his essay, discusses ecological and industrial development and counters with alternative futures. In contrast, the existence of the beach as a physical and metaphorical site are explored and linked with histories and archaeologies in the essay “The Beach as Ruin”. Here Lena Lencek makes wide ranging connections that play histories into the present and focus Andy Hughes’s work in time: as both representative of the present while simultaneously prophetic of possible dread futures. No less prophetic is the discussion, by Dr Richard Thompson, of scientific marine data, gathered about the effects of plastic debris in the world’s oceans; the scale and persistence of which makes shocking reading.
The photographic work produced in this book creates references that allow a wide cross comparison between the images; this is carried through into the page design of the appendix which acts as both a catalogue of all the images and locations as well as an accumulating visual glossary of beach waste. The structure of this book is striking visually, defined by the everydayness of the objects and the uniqueness of their depiction.
The breadth of ambition of this book is wide and the issues that are addressed of contemporary significance. Visually it deals with these in a thought provoking and seductive way; the essays extending these images into far reaching debates, the whole work culminating in an important contribution to the ecological paradigm.
 
© Stephen Brigdale 2006


one of the top 50 creative people in america over the past 20 years

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The Creativity 50,
david selected as “one of the top 50 creative people in america over the past 20 years”,
by Creativity Magazine, NYC.2006

 
http://www.adcritic.com/creativity20/50.php
 
Creativity Magazine 20th Anniversary-
David Carson, a former professional surfer who studied sociology at San Diego State, rode his quirky art direction of magazines like Beach Culture, Ray Gun his style is “intuitive,” he says, “I’m self-taught” to the pinnacle of the design world, amassing media accolades like “The most famous designer on the planet” and “art director of the era.” His first book, The End of Print, with Lewis Blackwell (1995, revised 2000) is the top-selling graphic design book of all time, having sold more than 200,000 copies in five languages. That book title was somewhat prophetic, it seems; in recent years Carson, via David Carson Design, with offices in New York and Charleston, S.C., has launched a career as a film director, having become “fascinated by moving images,” as he puts it, with commercials and branding projects for clients like Lucent, Microsoft, Quiksilver and Armani, as well as music videos for Nine Inch Nails and other bands. He says (on the nature of creativity): “All work needs to be personal it’s where the best work comes from, and it’s the only way to do something truly unique. Nobody else can pull from your background, upbringing, parents or life experiences. The best work is always the most self-indulgent. Do what you love and the passion will show.”


the end of print by david byrne.

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archive: review-the end of print by david byrne: the end of print by david byrne.
 
I first saw David Carson’s work, as did a number of others, in the short-lived magazine called Beach Culture, and I immediately wondered what the hell was going on. Who was reading this amazing magazine that seemed to be in the wrong place, directed at the wrong audience? It seemed to act like a popular mag, but sure didn’t look like one. Were sufers really into this radical design? Were they actually more savvy than I gave them credit for? Well, Southern California was the home of Kustom Kars and Low Riders, both examples of beautiful, radical, impractical design of and by the people. Maybe this was another step along those lines? Popular culture proving once again that it could be more revolutionary than high culture.
 
Then Beach Culture disappeared and we never found out the answers.
 
I was beginning to despair that rock music culture was becoming square, conservative, stuck. The mass-market mags were all towing some kind of party line, getting excited when they were suposed to, and narrowing their interests and focus until the world started becoming a suburban backyard. And that was what we were trying to escape from!
 
Then along came Ray Gun, and hey, it’s that guy again! Now we’re talking.
 
Design was cool again! Suddenly, visual expression was, as we always knew it was, as hip as Rock & Roll. Even the readers were contributing great drawings, paintings and sketches. This was not an isolated designer freaking out, but a catalyst for who knows how many people who knew that there is no difference between anything anymore-between “professional” musicians/artists and amateurs.
 
For decades, public art programs have tried to “bring art to the people”; museums and great institutions of learning strive to “enlighten the masses”. When all along the “masses” have been doing it for themselves-maybe unrecognized, and in slightly different forms. With guitars and offset fanzines. With kustom kars, surfboards and skateboards.
 
I suppose a lot will be made of David Carson’s work being the perfect example of Mcluhan’s theory of sprung life-that when a means of communication has outlived its relevance, it becomes a work of art. That print-books, magazines, news-papers will become icons, sculptures, textures-that they will be a means of communication of a different order, and that simple information transfer will be effected by some other (electronic) means. Print will no longer be obliged to simply carry the news. It will have been given (or will have taken, in this case) its freedom, and there is no going back. Print is reborn, resurrected, as something initially unrecognizable. It’s not really dead, it simply mutated into something else.
 
David’s work communicates. But on a level beyond words. On a level that bypasses the logical, rational centers of the brain and goes straight to the part that understands without thinking. In this way it works just like music does-slipping in there before anyone has a chance to stop it at the border and ask for papers.
 
-david byrne , nyc

LONGLIFE EXHIBITION

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“GOING, GOING…” -carve

Ten leading artists, designer and musicians have joined forces to put on an exhibition of surfboard art to raise money for SAS.
They ‘ve each painted a full-size longboard, and the resulting artworks will go on show around the country in an exhibition called ‘longlife’, in collaboration with Oxbow UK.
The ten contributors include contemporary artist Damien Hirst, cartoonist Jamie Hewlett (who created Tank Girl and Gorillaz), graffitti artist Banksy, big-wave legend Laird Hamilton, comedian and actor Paul Kaye (aka Dennis Pennis), rock bands A and The Aphex Twin, and graphic designer David Carson (who helped create Raygun and Beach Culture, and revamped Surfer Magazine in the early ’90s).
At the end of the tour the boards will be auctioned, with all the proceeds going to the SAS campaign for clean seas. Some of the artworks are expected to fetch phenomenal prices; a painting by Damien Hirst on canvas, similar to board design he’s contributed, recently fetched £84,000.
The board were shaped by Chops Lascelles at the Laminations factoly in Cornwall and they’re all fully functional mals…although their eventual owners are unlikely to be jetting off to Hawaii with them.
The launch party of the exhibition was held at the Spitz Gallery in London in April, and the tour will visit six other galleries before winding up the closing party in Newquay in August. -SB
 
LONGLIFE EXHIBITION SHOWS
1-12 May   Spitz Gallery, London Spitalfields Market,109 Commercial Street, London
15-22 May   The Department Store Gallery, Manchester, 61 Thomas Street, Manchester
27-30 may   The Workstation, Sheffield, Paternoster Rows, Sheffields
4-12 June   Roadmender Gallery, Northampton, 1 Lady’s Lane, Northampton
18-25 June   Plymouth Arts Centre, 38 Looe Street, Plymouth
11-15 July   BAG Gallery, Brighton, 108a Dyke Road, Seven Dials Junction, Brighton
26 July-2 Aug   Spacex Gallery, Exeter, 45 Preston Street, Exeter
16 Aug   Closing party, Newquay The Koola Bar, Beach Road, Newquay
 
* to bid on David’s Surf Board go to: http://www.oxbow-longlife.com/ AUCTION section


SURF CULTURE: Review ‘ESM’

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SURF CULTURE: THE ART HISTORY OF SURFING

 
Review By Mike Fish, ‘ESM’
 
In last issue’s Surf Art feature (Vol. 12, #88), ESM posed the following question: Surfing-art or sport? A related riddle would be: Ls there a difference between the surfer who makes art and the artist who surfs? The answers to these ambiguous musings certainly don’t come easy, but the newly released print masterpiece Surf Culture: The Art History of Surfing dips deep below the surface to explore the relationship between the two different- yet ultimately related-forms of expression.
 
This book is truly one of a kind-but in many different ways. Realistically, you could write three separate reviews for Surf Culture, from the standpoints of literary topic, photography, and layout. Encased in a top-quality binding, it’s a vast historical reference; a photographical tour-de-force; and a portable art gallery in your hands. Pour all that into multimedia award winner David Carson’s legendary design blender, and you’re sipping one hell of a verbal and visual cocktail-and a potent one at that. It’s a lot to digest for even the most sophisticated palate. But take your time and imbibe slowly, because if you savor each sentence, piece of imagery, and mind-blowing layout-you’ll definitely close the pages satisfied… and even a little buzzed.
 
From the 200-pound balsa planks and romantic curl searches of the early 1900s to the present day’s flyweight tri-fins and internet surf forecasting, the book takes an inventive look at the themes that coalesce surfing, art, and pop heritage. Surf Culture works to define the sport’s progression (spiritually, physically, and industrially), and its uncanny impact in the realm of art, while dispelling some of the nebulous myths accompanying its rise to popularity. “Kids in Kansas bolted surfboards to the tops of their cars in homage to the imagined surf lifestyle,” Craig Stecyk-longtime surf/ skate scene observer and co-author of the screenplay to the film Dogtown and Z-Boys-writes in the introduction. “The marketing frenzy, led by non- surf types, redefined the parameters of popular culture.”
 
For the surf veterans in our tribe, the opus provides a nostalgic ride down the sacred memory line, while the rising grommet or newcomer practically finds a unique education full of glimmering treasures and unmatched heritage. Hundreds of illustrative color photos, art in every conceivable form, arresting pull-quotes, and six kinetic essays weave the plotline. The narrative runs similar to a series of short, creative historical tales that connect-kind of like a film by Quentin Tarantino or Oliver Stone. Carson’s signature, beyond-the cutting-edge design flows like a collage, making you feel like you’re flipping through a salient scrapbook or intricate mixed-media surf diary. And although the layout can be a little overwhelming at points in relation to the text, because of its extremely abstract nature, on the whole it compliments the flow. The writing is topnotch, showing a noticeable diversity in style and content from all contributors including Stecyk, Bolton Colburn, Ben Finney, Tyler Stallings, Deanne Stillman, and Tom Wolfe.
 
The in-depth, 279-page endeavor was published as part of an art exhibit organized by the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA, and The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, HI. The show has already received a steady swell of international acclaim from dozens of journals and newspapers, and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia recently brought the exhibit to its only Right Coast venue. “Surf Culture is not a comprehensive survey of the history of surfing, or even art related to surfing,” writes California surf legend Bolton Colburn, director of the Laguna Art Museum. “There is no way it could be. In the process of preparing the exhibit, we soon realized that we could not address every question or pursue every angle. Surfing and its effects on contemporary culture is too large a subject for one exhibition, or one museum to tackle.” But the writers, editors, and designers did a damn good job of encapsulating a subject that resists being so easily pigeonholed. Because of this, Surf Culture isn’t merely an art book. Instead it’s a fundamental resource on the history and meaning of our endless pursuit, playing an integral role in the past, present, and future of surfing.
 
So is there a line in the sand between the surfer who makes art and the artist who surfs? Possibly, but the themes in Surf Culture could argue that the liquid bond between the two almost makes them one in the same-similar to the rider and the wave.
 
This book was published by the Laguna Art Museum in association with Gingko Press, Inc. and costs $39.95 for paperback and $49.95 for hardcover. For an extended online preview, visit
www.lagunaartmuseum.org and to order, visit www.gingkopress.com or e-mail books@gingkopress.com