Destiny the Whale to grace Bluff Welcoming of the Whales Festival
Destiny was completed and was taken back to Fabricon where she will be kept safe until the festival.
Ready to make a splash at her much anticipated arrival at the Sodurba Welcoming the Whales Festival this Saturday, 30 June at Brighton Beach.
The three-metre sculpture is the result of a major team effort by Sodurba, Umcebo Design, local business Fabricon, Eden College’s art departments, key sponsor CMH Kempster Ford South and SmartMatta, which has supplied recycled bottle tops in the specified whale colours to boost the amount of bottle tops collected by the community.
Eden College’s art pupils manufactured the cladding in the approach to the end of the second school term.
READ: Welcoming of the Whales festival to entice crowds to Bluff
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 art departments, which 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 processed recycled bottle tops which were attached to Bonox fencing panels to create cladding for final use on the mammoth whale structure.
READ: Bluff applies for whale heritage site status
The three metre structure was born through careful planning and partnerships with 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 assisted by assembling materials, constructing the armature and transport to and from Eden College, for the cladding to be added to the ‘skeleton’, in preparation for the piece’s much anticipated arrival for its launch at the Welcoming of the Whales Festival at Brighton Beach.
READ: Park and ride for the Brighton Beach Whale Festival
Destiny was completed and was taken back to Fabricon where she will be kept safe until the festival. After this she will return to Eden for their Ecofest and Art Exhibition. She will then be installed on the Bluff as a piece of public sculpture,” said Opperman.
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.
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