Revisionism Hits Cardiff-by-the-Sea Surfer Statue… Again
posted by ModeratorFiled under: Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking
Cardiff-by-the-Sea: Cardiff Kook caught in “pterodactyl snack attack”
by Morgan Cook and Bill Wechter
North County Times
August 13, 2011
The Encinitas surfer statue, titled “The Magic Carpet Ride,” also known as the “Cardiff Kook,” was dressed Saturday as a cave man being grabbed by a huge pterodactyl in the latest artful prank placed on the statue in Cardiff-by-the-Sea on Saturday.
A little more than a year after a papier-mache shark caught the Cardiff Kook in its jaws, a pterodactyl swooped onto the hapless statue Saturday, catching the inexperienced surfer up in its talons.
Hundreds of people stopped to stare at the giant prehistoric creature atop “The Magic Carpet Ride” sculpture on Highway 101.
“It’s the best Cardiff Kook since I’ve been alive,” 6-year-old Del Mar resident Lucy Holliday told her grandmother.
The fabric-and-PVC-pipe bird is the most recent in a series of elaborate pranks on the statue since it was constructed in 2007.
Residents have awakened to find it dressed in a tutu, decked out to show its Aztec pride, and locked in a large shark’s jaws.
“It’s unbelievable,” Encinitas resident Deb Brackley said of the pterodactyl, which appeared to have a wingspan of about 15 feet. “I love it.”
Her sister Rose said it looked like the statue had been the victim of a “pterodactyl snack attack.”
Riverside County resident Heather Gotoski said her brother, local artist Eric Hardtke, had constructed the prehistoric creature and assembled it on the statue during the night.
He surrounded the Kook with a large diorama of a prehistoric landscape, which included a painted volcano and small dinosaurlike creatures.
She said Hardtke worked for about two months on the artwork, which he built around the statue without damaging it.
“His goal is to have fun with it,” she said, “not to hurt anything.”
The statue has been damaged in the past by pranksters climbing it to decorate the figure.
The city paid about $2,000 for the surfer’s creator, artist Matthew Antichevich, to repair the damage July 26.
The Cardiff Botanical Society commissioned the statue from Antichevich and paid him $92,000 to create it.
The city contributed $30,000 to have it installed in 2007.
Related link:
