It’s the sixth annual recycled snowboard exhibition organised by local NZ Shred owner Jase John, who also uses it as a charity vehicle — this year’s recipient is community support centre Happiness House.
The 30-plus artists exhibiting this year are mostly using disused snowboards John has supplied which are no longer fit to sell.
His theme this time is ‘Boardworx’, which is partly a play on "the fact we’ve got so much road works and all this sort of stuff going on" — however the theme’s not compulsory.
What John enjoys most is the imagination displayed by the range of exhibitors, who include some serious artists and others who’ve never even snowboarded.
"My only rules are there are no boobs or willies, because we’ve got families coming to look at it — there are six boards in there from Remarkables Primary School."
Artists who want their works back pay a $20 entry fee, otherwise if they put them up for sale — with 100% of what’s made going to Happiness House — their entry is free.
The charity also takes the $2 gold coin entry fee — the exhibition runs each day from 8am till 10pm.
In previous years the exhibition’s made about $5000 to $7000 for whatever the designated charity is.
Tomorrow from 6pm there’s also a prizegiving and meet-the-artist night.
"The irony of it is most of these boards will have a longer life as an art piece than they ever did as the thing they were originally built for," John says.
Just don’t expect to see a piece from the organiser himself — "I’m rubbish at art".
