Val
Dusty Experiment,
The
(Kidman,
Andrew;
Frank, Jon; Sutherland, Mark; Others) :
1996
Litmus
– A Surfing Odyssey
Tadevan
Holdings
Pty Ltd, PO Box 199 Alexandria NSW 2015
Soft
cover,
91 pages, 95 colour photographs / sequences, 7 b/w
photographs, 17 illustrations,
1 strip cartoon, 15 advertisements.
Review
Originally
conceived
as a design retrospective surfing film (Tom Parrish
1995, Terry Fitzgerald
1996, Wooden boards 1997) this companion book features
several significant
articles, one on Terry Fiztgerald designs and interviews
with Wayne Lynch
and Albert Falzon.
The
illustrations
by Mark Sutherland are strangely unappealing and the
inclusion of surf
poetry is, as usual, unfortunate.
A
pervasive "soul
surfing" theme, for example Mark Sutherland’s essay on
the commercial and
technological invasion of surfing (page 8) is somewhat
compromised by the
collective's advertisements to buy Litmus: the
book, the video,
the compact disc, the tee shirt, the sweater (pages 1, 2
and 82).
First
released in
1996 at $15 it was remarketed in November 1998 with a
sticker covering
the original price – “The Ultimate Surfing Experience
: Only $5”.
Special
notes:
1. Albert
Falzon’s
sequence of Greg Noll at Makaha, 4 December 1969 (pages
59 – 60)
2. Wayne
Lynch Interview.
Question
: “Is
there anything you think surfer’s can do to help the
environment?”
Answer :
“Give
up, ha!” (page 44). |
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