Drawing Boards - cutting edge surfboard art for Surfers Against Sewage

Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, Sir Paul McCartney, Nick Walker and many others create exclusive artworks for Surfers Against Sewage.

This year Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has secured the support of an illustrious cast of established and up-and-coming artists for a key campaign fundraiser: Drawing Boards - Cutting Edge Surfboard Art for Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). Some of the UK's most celebrated artists have generously given up their time to design unique works of art on some of the most environmentally friendly surfboards currently available in the UK.

Whether you are interested in urban art or inspired by graphic design, a massive Beatles fan looking for a one-off opportunity to get your hands on Sir Paul McCartney's artistry or a collector of the work of the original Young British Artists, this auction holds something for you.

In the wake of Banksy's meteoric rise to fame, the last few years have seen the rapid expansion of the urban art scene and this collection includes stunning unique works from emerging artists including Nick Walker, Beejoir, Pure Evil, Eine and Mau Mau.

As part of the infamous 'Young British Artist' set, contributors Tracey Emin and Gavin Turk don't really need any introduction - they are simply some of the best-known contemporary artists to emerge from the UK in recent times. As with all the surfboards, their pieces are original and unique, and should whet the appetites of collectors and art aficionados worldwide. They are joined by leading British artists Jonathan Yeo, Conrad Shawcross and Annie Kevans amongst others.

SAS has ensured that all the surfboards used in the collection have the smallest environmental impact possible. Each board has been made with Homeblown's Biofoam* and glassed in Eco-comp UV Resins**.  These Biofoam blanks and Eco resins cost the same as their 100% petro-chemicals counterparts, but these boards consist of more than 50% organic material.  And, weight for weight they are proving stronger than traditional surfboards.

SAS' unique artworks will be auctioned as part of Bonhams world-renowned Urban Art auction on 23rd October 2008. The Urban Art auction will be held at Bonhams' New Bond Street salerooms and consist of a select collection of street art, including SAS's 14 eco-surfboard artworks. SAS is delighted to be partnering with such a prestigious auction house, which will help attract the very best international interest the collection. All profits from the sale will contribute directly to supporting ongoing SAS campaigns. All profits from the sale will contribute directly to supporting ongoing SAS campaigns.

Please visit www.sasdrawingboards.co.uk for the full auction catalogue of surfboards and for further information on the artists.

Please visit www.bonhams.com to register to bid, full bidding information and terms and conditions.

SAS Board Director, Hugo Tagholm says: "SAS campaigns aren't just about sewage and aren't just for surfers - they encompass much more, including marine litter with the recent award-winning Return to Offender initiative. Drawing Boards uses the latest in eco-surfboard technology, highlighting sustainable materials, and hopefully influencing surfers around the world into making the greener choices when it comes to surfing equipment. These days you can buy not only greener surfboards, but eco-wetsuits, recycled leashes, organic surf wax and much more. These choices don't just apply to surfers - all recreational water users can make choices to ensure their chosen sport is as environmentally friendly as possible.

Consumption of unsustainable, un-recyclable products is a dead end that often stops in the ocean. Millions of tonnes of plastics and other waste materials make their way into our seas each year and SAS are campaigning hard to make sure that the companies responsible for this marine litter take additional steps to ensure this is a dying trend".

A special thanks to project partner Global Ocean, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of marine life that share much common ground with SAS campaigns. Global Ocean aims to raise awareness of marine conservation and help protect endangered marine species. Mutual aims converge specifically around the issue of marine litter, particularly plastic, on which Global Ocean and SAS campaign vigorously. Founder Melanie Salmon has helped bring a number of artists for the project as support for SAS campaigns.

Notes

For further information please contact Hugo Tagholm on 07980 727 294 or hugotagholm@hotmail.co.uk

Notes for editors:

The Drawing Boards website, www.sasdrawingboards.co.uk will go live at the end of August

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is a UK-based non profit-making organisation campaigning for clean, safe recreational waters, free from sewage effluents, toxic chemicals, marine litter and nuclear waste. For further information on Surfers Against Sewage campaigns please visit www.sas.org.uk

*For more information on Homeblown Biofoam please visit http://www.homeblown.co.uk/biofoam.php

**For more information on EcoComp UV Resins please visit http://www.suscomp.com/FAQs.htm

Also giving their valuable time and support to the project have been

Laminations www.laminations.co.uk For shaping, glassing and finishing of the surfboards.

Seabase www.seabase.eu For provision of artist decals.

Global Ocean www.globalocean.eu  For artist support.

The full list of artists supporting the project is as follows:

• Beejoir
• David Carson
• Eine
• Tracey Emin
• Pure Evil
• Kurt Jackson
• Annie Kevans
• Mau Mau
• Sir Paul McCartney
• Polly Morgan
• Conrad Shawcross
• Gavin Turk
• Nick Walker
• Jonathan Yeo

Artist information

Beejoir

Beejoir is one of the most celebrated street artists to come out of the urban art scene. His work often focuses on world events, history, philosophy, and politics and this trademark social commentary has been applied to walls all over the World. Beejoir regularly uses montage, juxtaposing two very different images to question the world around us, including subjects like the motivation for war and society's rampant consumerism.

www.beejoir.co.uk

David Carson

DAVID CARSON graduated from San Diego State University, where he received a BFA degree in sociology.

Carson designed Transworld Skateboarding, Transworld Snowboard- ing, Surfer, Beach Culture, and Ray Gun magazines. Newsweek magazine said of Carson "He changed the public face of graphic design", London-based Creative Review magazine dubbed Carson "Art Director of the Era." His work on Beach Culture magazine won "Best Overall Design" and "Cover of the Year" from the Society of Publication Designers in New York. Carson lectures extensively throughout the world, and in the past few years, he has branched out into film and television, directing commercials and videos.

David is featured in both "The History of Graphic Design" by Phillip Meggs, as well as "The Encylopedia of Surfing" by Matt Warsaw. His work continues to be subjective and driven by intuition. David now divides his time between his Zurich, Switzerland studio and his West Indies home, on the point at Kane Garden Bay.

www.davidcarsondesign.com

Eine

Eine is a prolific street artist based in London, UK and is famous for his alphabet lettering on shop shutters in London's East End. Eine's work has been shown at various art fairs including the 20/21 British Art Fair and the London Art Fair. He was featured in an article in Time Out magazine as one of the six best new street artists working in the capital. www.einesigns.co.uk

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin is one of the UK's most celebrated and notorious artists to emerge from the so-called "Young British Artists" scene. Renowned for her readiness to share details of her personal life in her work, Emin's perhaps most controversial and well-know piece, My Bed, was shown at the Turner Prize exhibition in 1999.

Pure Evil

In 1990 artist Pure Evil left the Poll Tax Riots of London behind and went to live in California where he spent 10 years ingesting weapons grade psychedelics, thinking about stuff, making electronic music and printing t-shirts.

Inspired by skateboard culture and the west coast character graffiti of Twist, he returned to London and inexplicably picked up a spray can and started painting weird fanged vampire bunnies everywhere. www.pureevilclothing.com

Kurt Jackson

Kurt Jackson is one of the leading British Artists. His work embraces an extensive range of materials and techniques including mixed media, large canvases, and relief work..

Kurt Jackson's paintings are fluent, dynamic and exciting, resulting from a working method that is both challenging and intense. He is undoubtedly most famous for his plein air paintings of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. However his painting continues to take him abroad and further afield.

Kurt Jackson has worked with a number of charities, raising money and awareness about their work, they include: Survival International, Greenpeace, Oxfam, VSO, Water Aid, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust.

www.kurtjackson.co.uk

Annie Kevans

In her first series of paintings, 'Boys', Annie recreated tyrants and dictators as wide-eyed toddlers.  Her second series, 'Girls', questioned our collusion in the deification and commodification of girls such as Britney Spears and Shirley Temple and looked at the continuing media-led sexualisation of childhood.  The process of self invention, innocence and culpability touches both series differently.  'Boys' was bought by Charles Saatchi from Annie's graduation show from Central St Martin's and will be shown in 'The Power of Paper' in the new Saatchi Gallery.  Annie was a finalist in the Jerwood Drawing Prize and a finalist in the 'Women of the Future' Awards.  Her work has appeared on 'Have I Got News for You' and on BBC1 news.

www.anniekevans.com

Mau Mau

Mau Mau has spray painted his way around the world - his artwork appearing on everything from shipwrecks to surfboards to billboards to city walls. Part of the Souled Out Studios collective, his art meshes social and environmental commentary - bitterly topical with a tongue-in-cheek sweetener.

Before making the transition to canvass Mau Mau gained a cult following through designs for Greenpeace, Surfers Against Sewage and clothing labels Sewerside and THTC. Roots planted in the surf and country vibes of the North Devon coast, Mau Mau has caught his fair share of dirty waves over the years...

www.mau-mau.co.uk

Sir Paul McCartney

Member of The Beatles, international superstar...need we say any more.

www.paulmccartney.com

Polly Morgan

Polly Morgan is British and lives and works in London. She was born in 1980  and began working as an artist in October 2005. A love of animals and a desire to preserve them led her to learn taxidermy, under the tutelage of taxidermist George Jamieson. Since then she has gravitated towards making still lives with animal as subject.

Her intention has never been to mimic the natural habitats of animals, as they are traditionally displayed, but to place them in less expected scenery. The scale and settings are often unnatural, but the animals are never anthropomorphised. Seeing them out of place encourages us to look at them as if for the first time: a rat sheds its association with horror and disease and can be rightly viewed as a beautiful animal.

All taxidermied animals used by Polly Morgan are either road casualties or have been donated to the artist by pet owners and vets after natural or unpreventable deaths.

www.pollymorgan.co.uk

Conrad Shawcross

Often using subjects which lie on the border of science and philosophy, Conrad Shawcross's structural and often mechanical sculptures, question empirical, ontological and philosophical systems ubiquitious within our lives. While at first appearing rational and functional, his often complex mechanised systems in the end deny all rational function and so the viewer is forced down philosophical and metaphysical avenues to deduce a 'rasion d'etre'. From early works such as The Nervous System, 2002 - a monumental spinning machine that endlessly weaves a length of coloured rope into the form of a double helix, the shape of DNA - to his recent giant spiral work Continuum, 2004, the artist has attempted to visualize, among other things, the incomprehensible of human concerns, time.

Taken from www.victoria-miro.com

Gavin Turk

Gavin Turk came to prominence in the 1990's as one of Britain's infamous "Young British Artists" and his art was included in 1997's hugely popular Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy alongside Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the Chapman brothers. Much of his work focuses deals with the cult of personality and the construction of artistic myth.

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/turk/

Nick Walker

In 1992 Nick Walker began to combine stencils with his freehand work which allowed him to contrast almost photographic imagery with the rawness which evolved from conventional graffiti styles.

Stencils introduce an impact element to his work. The appeal of stencils is that they allow him to take an image from anywhere - dissect any part of life - and recreate it on any surface.

Nick adds an element of humor or irony to some paintings to add a little light relief to the walls.

http://web.mac.com/nickwalkerz

Jonathan Yeo

One of Britain's best portrait painters Yeo is, extraordinarily, almost entirely self-taught. A period of serious illness whilst he was studying for a degree in literature and film encouraged him to follow his natural love of painting. He taught himself the old fashioned way by studying and imitating the styles and methods of any artist that interested him. In this way he progressed through the twentieth century, rendering everything from still lives, landscapes and nudes in a variety of styles, from cubist, to surrealist. Living beside the old Tate on Millbank helped and Yeo would often start his days looking at works that grabbed his attention.

www.jonathanyeo.com

Photos © Alex Sudea

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