Sandstorm
By Vincent Heeringa,
Idealog January/February 2007, page 19
Two creative Kiwis are planning to turn the world’s beaches into a canvas for New Zealand sculpture. First, they’ve got some t-shirts to sell
We will fight them on the beaches. Well, sort of—entrepreneurs Simon Shattky and Steve Adams will fight for the world’s attention by building a series of giant fern-shaped sand sculptures on the beaches of the world
They’re currently raising funds to stage the one-day event this Waitangi Day, starting with an undisclosed beach near LA.
“The finished sculpture lasts about six hours before the tide washes it away, but we’ll be webcasting all day from about 7.30am New Zealand time,” says Shattky, who’ll be manhandling a shovel with about 80 or so Kiwis resident in Hollywood and beyond. “Cliff Curtis is organising the Kiwi film community to get in support.” Michael Mizrahi, the genius event creator, is also lending a hand. Next up is Valencia, for the America’s Cup.
Nice. But why?
“It’s ‘export year’ in 2007 and we thought it’s a great way to announce to the world that we have a great thing going down here,” says Shattky. “This kind of promotion is usually left to the government, but we want the private sector to set the agenda for a change.”
The stunt launches a website, MadeFromNZ.com, and an online directory of exporters with the codename The Black Pages.
Shattky is an old hand at this. With Mizrahi, he built and filmed the first sand fern in 2001 at Bethels Beach (above) for a campaign funded by the then Industry New Zealand. The campaign never made it to air and Shattky (who owned the IP) revived the idea when pitching for the latest Made in NZ campaign.
“For political reasons the campaign has been postponed and we thought, blow it, this is too good to wait for.”
The project will cost over $1 million. To fund it, they’ve landed Air New Zealand as a sponsor and are selling Huffer-designed t-shirts for $100 apiece. “There are 10,517 kilometres between Bethels and our beach in California. So that’s how many t-shirts we’ve got. How many do you want?”
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