Katharina Grosse Creates Surfable Artworks for Parley
German artist Katharina Grosse has created a limited edition series of Firewire surfboard art pieces to support Parley’s Global Cleanup Network
Born in Freiburg but now living and working in Berlin, leading artist Katharina Grosse is known for an artistic practice that boldly challenges viewers' perception of space. Her most recent series was created directly on surfboards to support our Global Cleanup Network. Each unique piece is a surfable symbol for the oceans movement, and a call for creativity and change.
Fittingly, Grosse herself once compared the perception of her abstract color environments to a surfing experience: "It's an amazing feeling to swim through swirling underwater sandstorms while the water shapes the land." In this sense, the erratically painted surfaces of these works can be seen as a reverberation of the enigmatic and dynamic character of the seas. What is usually hidden, now becomes form and color, realigning connections with the world.
“I understand a painting as something that, as we view it, travels through us and realigns our connections with the world”
KATHARINA GROSSE
Grosse’s playful work has been shown at institutions worldwide, from the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow to Mass MoCA in the United States to K11 Art Foundation in China. The 20 Firewire surfboards in the series are constructed from sustainably sourced wood, reducing foam, resin and fiberglass use – uniting the worlds of art and surfing as messengers for the ocean cause.
Collaboration partner Firewire is at the forefront of innovation in the surf industry. Using their Timbertech Ecoboard-certified construction for this artwork is a symbol for change as this surfboard is made with sustainably sourced wood and bio-resin, which reduces its carbon footprint by over 35% versus traditionally built surfboards.
Katharina Grosse, Rockaway, 2016, MoMA PS1’s Rockaway! series, New York, site-specific installation
Katharina Grosse, Wunderbild, 2018, National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic, acrylic on fabric, 1.450 x 5.620 x 670 cm and 1.450 x 5.490 x 690 cm
Surfboard photos: Jens Ziehe © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2019
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