AUSTRALIA: Gold Coast - Swell Sculpture Festival - Open Air Exhibition at Currumbin Beach

The SWELL SCULPTURE FESTIVAL is an annual open-air art festival held at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast. It typically runs for ten days in September and transforms approximately one kilometer of coastline into a freely accessible sculpture exhibition in public space. The festival was founded in 2001 as an initiative to bring more public art into the urban space of the Gold Coast and to use beaches as exhibition spaces. Since then, it has become a fixture on the regional cultural calendar and is now curated by a nonprofit organization led by NATASHA EDWARDS, with the participation of various artists and groups.

Typical features include large-scale sculptures by Australian and international artists, installed directly in the sand or along the coastline. The works remain freely accessible throughout the festival, on public space with no admission fee and no traditional museum structure. A perfect artwalk to combine creativity with calming down beach landscape. Of course, many motifs and objects relate to the location, nature, and wildlife. These are often depicted in a realistic, quirky, or distorted manner. For example, menacing shark fins that protrude from the sand. In terms of content, many works address themes such as the environment, politics, or social issues, often with a direct connection to the direct coast spot in which they are situated.

Many other works are abstract creations that explore a wide range of themes. The great diversity is vast, and you’ll find everything from uplifting motifs to critical concepts. For a limited time, a temporary open-air museum opens on the beach, seamlessly blending art, the sea, and a stroll. In addition to the exhibition itself, there’s a supporting program featuring workshops, artist talks, and smaller exhibition events.

These photos were sent to us by photographer SUSI VON PREISLINGER. Many, many years ago, we stayed at her hostel during a road trip through Australia. It was supposed to be just for two days, but we ended up staying nearly two weeks. The reason was that we were also working and needed to earn money. But mostly because we just partied every day, and always the next day we were so hammered and could not drive the car. That happened several times, like the „Surfers Effect“. And that habit was also the reason why we got fired after the first day on the job we had there…. But we kept on partying! Yes, focus on the important things!

I can still remember the printing plant. A machine broke down, so they quickly hired some backpackers to fold the booklets by hand, about 100 pages each. We showed up there as a group from the hostel… but completely wasted. And I have to say, it all happened very spontaneously, and we actually really needed the money. So when Susi woke us up at 8 a.m. to tell us about it, that there came a very spontaneous call, we said yes and went on it. But we’d only gone to bed two hours earlier after partying… so how else could it have ended…

A group of backpackers went from the hostel to the factory, but I think we caused more chaos than we helped. Even though we were completely incompetent, it must have looked like a funny comedy. Still, by the end of the evening, we’d received an envelope with our first pay! Yeah! Which we’d blown through that very night. Because we were told that it was nice of us to help out, but we’d better should not come again tomorrow. So we had to celebrate our first paycheck, our hiring, and at the same time, our firing! And there are so many more cool and funny storys!

Surfers Paradise was simply an amazing experience – a great time with such a laid-back and pleasant atmosphere. You just don’t want to leave! And Susi wrote in a message recently, “No worries, mate!” It’s so nice to hear those words again – they bring back very good memories. Thank you so much, dear Susi, you’re the best! And the time in Surfers was marvellous! And thank you very much as well for this photo collection with artworks from the SWELL SCULPTURE FESTIVAL.

We’ve just launched the page, so if any of you readers have photos from the festival or of other urban art on the Gold Coast, then send them to info@vagabundler.com and we’ll add them to the archive. This page here is only about the sculptures from the festival, but also check out the page for urban artworks around town. And there are many more pages about urban art from Australia and from all around the world.