[imagesource:wavescape]

The Wavescape Surf and Ocean Festival just announced the 2024 event lineup and it looks dope as heck.

The fest will run from 1 to 14 March, celebrating its 20th anniversary with a customary selection of ocean activities, the Wavescape Artboard Charity Auction, and several film screenings.

Since its inception in 2004, the Wavescapes Film Festival has morphed into the Wavescape Surf and Ocean Festival, with emphasis on community upliftment, and ocean conservation, while celebrating the aspirational power of surf and beach culture.

The streamlined offering of ocean-focused events includes an open-air film screening with The Galileo Open Air Cinema and a screening in the Deep South at Scarborough; beach cleanups; a queer surf session; the Wesgro Ocean Film Symposium, and of course the annual flagship Wavescape Artboard Project, comprising an exhibition of artistic surfboards auctioned for ocean charities.

Festival Director Shani Judes said she was proud of Wavescape’s achievements in the 20 years of its existence, with the Artboard Project at the pinnacle of this success:

“Since 2004, we have curated and managed the Wavescape Art Board Project, with a quiver of amazing South African artists who have accepted our invitation to turn surfboards into art for an exhibition and ocean charity auction, which has raised close to R7 million over the years for entities such as NSRI, Shark Spotters, Ocean Pledge, 9 MilesProject, Waves for Change, and the Beach Co-op. We have helped fund several NSRI boats and helped the Shark Spotters keep surfers and sharks in mostly harmonious cohabitation.”

This year’s team of surfboard artists is spearheaded by veteran Bretty Murray, who once again uses his acerbic wit as a cultural weapon with his board inscribed KLEPTOCRATS: defined as “rulers who use their power to steal their country’s resources”. We all know exactly who and what he’s talking about, right?

 

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Murray’s work is complemented by a board designed, shaped and decorated by alternative art guru Anton Butler; and the inimitable Stefan Smit, who is hot off his work for the inaugural Pangeaseed Foundation’s Sea Walls Mural Project. Smit is joined by the Wavescape Artboard artist from back in the 2000s, Toya (Motel 7), who also participated in creating building-sized Sea Walls murals around Cape Town (directed by Wavescape Festival Manager Shani Judes).

Joining them is ocean lover and adventurer Jero Revett, who uses the sea as his muse to create artworks that deploy Gyotaku, Cyanotype and Woodcut techniques.

 

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Sulette van der Merwe’s Artboard explores intuitive connections between symbolism, with a strong influence of pop art, surrealism and digital culture, while MJ Lourens, a Fine Art Sculpture graduate plays at the intersection between paintings, sculptures and film.

 

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Another artist at Wavescape is Hakopike (Amy-Leigh Braaf), who explores the complexities of love through her art – drawing inspiration from the nation’s biodiversity, and her ancestral history.

 

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There’s also Kabelo Moraloki, born in Mamelodi, who works with portraiture and abstract art characterised by bold and bright colours, intricate patterns and Tetris blocks. He is joined by co-founder of the Cape Town institution Moonlight Mass, Elad Kirshenbaum AKA One, a qualified architect who uses spray paint and markers used in graffiti and tagging to produce layers and patterns that converge into what he calls Architectural Abstract.

 

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The auction of these surfboards displaying a rich variety of styles, techniques, and artists takes place at Jack Black’s Taproom on Wednesday 6 March and will be mc’d by the auctioneer and comedian Nik Rabinowitz.

Then, Wavescape is again partnering with the Galileo Open Air Cinema for a screening under the stars at Kirstenbosch. The screening includes two films, Older than Trees, a compelling short documentary about the ancient world of sharks by our own Oscar-winning director Pippa Ehrlich, and Point of Change, the riveting true story of how the discovery of the perfect wave changed the Indonesian island of Nias forever.

The Deep South Film Festival at the Scarborough Community Centre will see a screening of Stoker Machine and the beautifully filmed Corners of the Earth, set in the remote eastern part of Russia Kamkatchka during the invasion of Ukraine.

The final event of the festival will be the Wesgro Ocean Film Symposium, which aims to boost early film careers while curating speakers and demonstrations of film industry proponents. This will be a unique opportunity for filmmakers and producers to network with companies and service providers with a connection to adventure tourism.

For tickets, RSVPs and more information, head over here.

[source:supplied]