Teahupo’o (surf spots series)

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About the artwork Teahupo’o (surf spots series)

Teahupo’o is one of the most beloved and feared waves in the world. The name means 'crushed skulls' in Tahitian and you are just going to know why.

In this paradise of crystal clear waters located in French Polynesia, the coral ocean floor depth changes abruptly, creating a sudden and giant wave, with strong and dangerous tubes.

Four surfers already lost their lives there, and many were seriously injured.

Besides being an iconic wave, I always wanted to portray a Teahupo’o’s wave because I find its shape very unusual and beautiful. It has a vertical wall in its face, a sort of water plateau at the back, and a very thick tube front wall.

So I wanted to represent a Teahupo’o wave as an energetic and continuous vortex.

I made several sketches until I found fitting symmetric shapes. In this final artwork, the sky was designed by duplicating the sea and rotating it like a "hinge", creating then a perception of circular and powerful movement, like a whirlpool or a jet engine.

About the artist Andre Brik

Andre Brik was born in Curitiba, Brazil in 1972. Architect, illustrator, and art director, he also studied typography and graphic design at the School of Visual Arts and at Parsons School of Design in New York.

In his works, you can find some of the 1920’s Plakatstil graphic style and polish posters with their clean lines and flat contrasting background colors, their visual puns and wit, and subtle irony. There is also nonsense, humor, counterculture, dada, surrealism, and punk rock. The ideas are born from the observation of the elements of everyday objects. Then the artist begins a long process of sketching to deconstruct and recombine shapes, colors, and meanings. Finally, a careful selection of outcoming ideas is chosen to be digitally developed, painted, and finished as a graphic art illustration.