is of Greek decent and his voyages are long ones and most definitely full of adventure and discoveries. While he remains without fear of what lies ahead in his path, he continues to challenge himself for the moment where his passions will be united and expressed. In fact, it was through discovering the use of a surfboard not only in the water but also in its afterlife that he began his work as a sculptor. Ithaka started his immense body of sculpture work, “The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard”, after accidentally breaking one of his own boards in half while surfing in California back in the late 1980’s. He later restructured and retextured the destroyed
board – recycling it into a piece of wall-hanging sculpture. That first piece, as insignificant as it may have initially seemed, set in perpetual motion the project that would occupy huge amounts of Ithaka’s time. For the next two decades (on four different continents), he set out on a series of global residencies in his ongoing pursuit of inspiration, waves and profound cultural experiences.Ithaka’s early surfboard sculptures were simplistic, but strong in form and color. They gradually evolved through the years in both complexity and texture. The finished pieces themselves do not have obvious surfing themes. Often incorporating
clean minimalistic contours with metallic hues and include easily found objects such as clothespins, bottle caps, branches, etc. Today, twenty years and more than two hundred sculptures later, he is still using broken and abused surfboards as his primary raw sculpture material. In my recent interview with Ithaka he shared: “This work is about giving new life to the discarded. As far as inanimate objects go, a surfboard has one of the most privileged lifestyles of any manufactured item in the world. Although they come into existence with a time
consuming, messy and laborious birth, once they leave the factory or shop, they have no other purpose to fulfill but to provide aquatic companionship to their adventureseeking proprietors: ride waves, bask in the sun and travel. Whether they were owned by a beginner getting wet at a local beach break, owned by a professional surfer voyaging by plane to exotic contest locations around the globe, or strapped to the roof of a soul-surfer’s van for road trips deep into Morocco or Mexico – these relatively simple fiberglass, foam and resin foils have provided near spiritual experiences to their users.
Ithaka | Brazil
photo: Erika Cristina Dos Santos
Ithaka | Africa
Ithaka | Lisbon Aquarium photo: Livia Palhano
However, due to the lightness of materials and their fragile nature, an average surfboard’s life expectancy is between three months and three years. And broken or delaminated, with cracked fins or waterlogged – they are inevitably retired out of the water and into the back of a garage or into the garbage, lacking even a modest funeral. But now, through a series of resurrection rituals using saws, sandpaper, acrylic paint and ornamentation, these loyal friends of humanity have been brought back to
10 HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY
photo: Joao Barbosa
life with new identities and a new purpose - to provide visual diversion. Nothing more, nothing less. These surfboards (now as wall-hanging sculptures) all have stories to tell. Long before they had been cut up and painted upon, they have been to places we haven’t been and seen things we haven’t seen - and done things most of us can only begin to understand. Surfboards and surfing in general, have been so good to me throughout my life. They have been the key to
unlock the wonders of the ocean’s power, which has been to me a huge nucleus of inspiration, fun, health and cerebral balance - and have personally given me a life worth living. I’ve been surfing since I was twelve years old and I still can’t sleep the night before a good swell. And I’ve been doing this sculpture work since 1989 and I still love it. I’ll never get tired of it.” “The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard” is constantly growing as a revolving series that has been exhibited in Europe, Asia, South America
and the U.S. It has also been featured in hundreds of magazines and television programs. In 2006, a documentary focusing on the life and process of the artist written and directed by Susanna Lira called “The Road To Ithaka” won the Best Script Award at the Brazilian FATU film festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Most recently in June 2010, Ithaka returned to Southern California with a larger-than-life retrospective of his incredible body of sculpture work “The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard” ( Continues on Page 15 )