Had a waxy meltdown the other night as I watched some work in progress by Gold Coast artist Scott Redford. Already onboard with his 2007 flashing neon light installation 'Surf Nauman: Surf/Riot in my handwriting' (pictured), Redford has raised the tow bar on the Wax On ute with a series of screen tests for a filmic piece about a young surfie artist dude he's invented named Reinhardt Dammn.
As Redford says; "Reinhardt is an experiment in art to test the limit of current notions of originality and authorship." As screenwriter, set designer and co-director Redford shot
the footage at Caloundra High School against a classroom blackboard with a bunch of kids reciting the line 'I am Reinhardt Dammn'. Like the documentary 'Unmistaken Child', which followed a Tibetan Buddhist monk in search of the reincarnation of his master, it's perfectly clear when the real deal appears. He is the one we've been waiting for. With his salty sun bleached blonde hair encrusted in the shape of a wave over his forehead he stares at the camera unflinchingly, unlike the other kids who squirm and giggle and generally can't keep a straight face. This boy allows the viewer into his creative space as he seriously strums a dodgy guitar prop sprayed silver by Redford. And all the while a gorgeous teen babe wearing a singlet and mini-skirt draws the perfect wave in chalk on the blackboard. Bliss.
Hopefully we'll be able to screen some of this in the show alongside Redford's video performance entitled 'Dead Board 1 - 4' which had a very popular outing in Caloundra a while ago and features a variety of surfie boys and girls sawing old waterlogged boards in half, each one spray painted with the word 'DEAD' on it. There may even be a 'Dead Board 5' ready in time to accompany it.
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