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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Australian Artists >   <  36 Views of Green Island (21) - Surfboards  >  

Tom Kristensen

Surfboards, 2006
copyright Tom Kristensen

Tom Kristensen, born 1962, is a young artist from Australia who works in the tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking. On this page, he writes about his latest print from the series "36 Views of Green Island ".

Here is the original text written by Tom Kristensen. Text and images are copyright protected and may not be used or distributed for other than private use without the prior consignment of the author/artist.

36 Views of Green Island

"These 36 views are presented in the Sosaku Hanga tradition: self-carved and hand printed, using Japanese tools, Japanese mulberry washi and traditional pigment colours. Each print is made from 4 to 6 blocks and printed in an edition of 25 copies."

Surfboards - No. 21

Surfing is the defining sport of Australia. A huge surf culture has been built around the surfboard. Each year brings new surfboard shapes and styling. The early longboard was made of wood and had a single fin. The modern board is shorter, sharper, shaped in fibreglass and has triple fins. The risk of injury through collision with the sharp nose and fins is very real, but the perhaps the greatest fear comes from the deep.

Board riders often see sharks and sometimes they come frighteningly close. In Australian waters there is on average one fatal attack per year. Given the numbers of people swimming, diving and surfing, the risk is tiny, but the fear looms large. When a shark does attack it makes national news. Sharks have a grip on the public imagination.

In 1935 the Shark Arm Mystery captured international attention. A large tiger shark was caught off Maroubra beach and put into a swimming pool for public entertainment. After days of confinement the shark regurgitated its stomach contents, including a severed tattooed arm. The arm led police to a victim and a group of suspects, and to a further murder.

In 1936 the swimming beaches off Sydney were netted. The nets do not keep sharks out but intercept them as they make their way along the coastline. The nets have killed thousands of sharks and rays along with dolphins, dugongs and recently a whale calf.

The fear of sharks peaked in 1975 with the film Jaws. This film introduced the myth of the maneater, a shark that hunts human beings, but most attacks are a single bite with the victim living to tell the tale. More often the surfboard is left with teeth marks and sometimes a sizeable chunk missing.

Tom Kristensen
April 2006

More about Tom Kristensen

The artist was first discovered by Eric van den Ing, co-author of a classic ukiyo-e book "Beauty and Violence" and owner of Saru Gallery. After Eric van den Ing had placed Tom's woodblock prints on his online gallery, a few days later a collector had bought the whole set. Mr. van den Ing seems to have a "magic hand" for new artists. He was the first to introduce Paul Binnie in 2000 to a larger online community of friends of Japanese prints.

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