Here's a surfboard I painted for Project 0's art auction to raise money for mangrove restoration in the Caribbean. You can bid here.
Unfortunately I had to pull out of the launch exhibition for the auction as I only found out last minute the show was sponsored by Sky TV.
I'm against all attempts at corporate greenwashing because it promotes the idea that consuming one brand over another can save the planet and that corporations care about these issues when they don't. But its the involvement of Sky in particular which is really galling as the company is part-owned (and soon to be fully-owned) by Rupert Murdoch, who uses his TV channels and newspapers to push climate-change denial and anti-renewable energy propaganda worldwide.
The fact that Sky says they're "committed" to removing single-use plastic forks from their canteen doesn't feel like a fair trade when their shareholders profit directly from the destruction of the ocean and the planet. The primary function of Sky Ocean Rescue is signing up more Sky TV subscribers, it's an advertising parasite stuck to the side of a genuinely important cause.
I hope charities and NGOs start to realise soon that these partnerships are inherently counter-productive and destructive to their causes.
All that said - the auction itself has no connection to Sky, so cancel your Sky subscription and use the money you save to bid on this board!
For more details and my statement about the work check the auction page: https://paddle8.com/work/darren-cullen/160077-discard-after-single-use/
Here's my statement behind the work:
Driven by the demands of the market, consumerism teaches us that nothing is fixable or reusable, only discardable. This is more than just an individual or social mind set, it is the structural foundation of our consumer economy. Following this philosophy to its conclusion, do we believe when the ocean is finally broken we can buy a new one?
There are limits to what money can buy and there are limits to what the Earth can take. The economic system we built to enrich us is impoverishing the natural wealth of the planet. To fix it will take more than simply changing our individual consumer habits, it requires a fundamental restructuring of our economy.
We need to abandon the idea of economic growth being the sole barometer of wealth and prosperity. What about the wealth of teeming oceans or vibrant forests? We have to understand, at last, that infinite growth is not possible on a finite planet. We need an economic model that moves beyond digging up resources from one hole and burying them in another. The Earth does not belong to one species or one generation, we have no right to destroy it for profit.
