Whale of a recycled art piece under construction for Bluff festival

A THREE-metre long recycled replica of a whale is set to be constructed at the Welcoming of the Whales Festival on Saturday, 30 June at Brighton Beach.
In its ongoing commitment to promote South Durban as a premier tourism destination, Sodurba Community Tourism Organisation has commissioned local design consultancy, Umcebo Design to create a three metre long piece of public art, all made of recycled materials. The brief was that Umcebo Design would select local partners and also draw on their extensive history of working with recycled materials to create a wide range of high-end decor items, lighting and public art pieces.
Umcebo specialises in experimenting with recycled and re-purposed materials in its various art and craft projects. Umcebo has artwork which incorporates recycled material in Durban Art Gallery’s permanent collection; and in 2014 they were selected as a World Design Capital Project for their recycled chandeliers. They have also built public art for COP 17, Wildlands Trust and Oprah Winfrey, to name a few clients.

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Armed with the brief from Sodurba, Umcebo Design creative director and former Ningizimu Special School art teacher Robin Opperman reached out to engage Eden College’s junior and senior art departments, which have welcomed the opportunity to showcase the creative potential of recycled materials. Brigitta Gaylard and Deidre Maree embraced the challenge and the school’s art pupils are processing recycled bottle tops which will be attached to Bonox fencing panels to create cladding for final use on the mammoth whale structure.

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Local artist and designer Mike McFadyean, who has a long history of working with Umcebo Design created some preliminary sketches and developed the design into a full digital render and visualisation to help everyone involved have a clearer vision of the final outcome.
Local fabricators Fabricon is currently assembling materials so that the armature can be constructed and transported to Eden College, for the cladding to be added to the whale armature, in preparation for the piece being ready for its launch at the “Welcoming Of The Whales Festival”. Fabricon CEO Selwin Swartz is excited about the challenge of making the armature, as this is not only a structural challenge but also a creative assignment, compared to its normal work. Fabricon will sponsor the manufacture and transport of the armature in its non and fully-clad forms.
CMH Kempster Ford South is a key sponsor of the manufacture of this iconic public art piece, along with SmartMatta, which has supplied recycled bottle tops in the specified whale colours in addition to the bottle tops collected by the community. Eden’s art pupils are manufacturing the cladding as the end of the term approaches.

Umcebo Design’s team will then clad the piece and have it ready to be transported to the festival at Brighton Beach on 30 June. Sodurba CTO, the key sponsor of this entire initiative, is focused on promoting South Durban and the Bluff as the premier whale watching destination for tourists from around the world.
“They are also firmly committed to creative recycling and its ability to make powerful pieces of public art. This piece will create an awareness of the destructive nature of discarded plastic in the marine environment and its impact on marine creatures and our biosphere. After this, the whale will have solar powered blue LED lighting installed and it will be installed as a piece of public art on The Bluff, to make a very powerful statement highlighting this premier whale spotting site and the urgent need to protect, manage and conserve it as a resource for Durban, South Africa, and The World. Follow all images and updates by ‘Umcebo Design’ on Facebook and ‘umcebo design’ on Instagram to follow the progress and completion of this landmark piece of public art, clad in recycled materials,” said Sodurba chairman Helga du Preez.