Dive Into Artist Mark Cunningham’s Cache of Found Ocean Objects
The champion bodysurfer and career lifeguard has been diving for decades on the North Shore and now turns his ocean finds into art.
Also among Cunningham’s found objects: golf balls, GoPro cameras, anchors, swim fins and wood floats washed over from Japan. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Poking around waterman Mark Cunningham’s garage-turned-art-studio is like looking through a giant lost-and-found department for O‘ahu’s surf breaks. There are thousands of reclaimed objects, from barnacle-covered sunglasses and watches to weathered ropes and fishing floats to surf gear claimed by punishing reefs, all tidily sorted into buckets and bins.
A champion bodysurfer and career lifeguard, Cunningham first began diving for “treasure” during his decades-long stint on the North Shore. “Lifeguards and beachboys have been doing this ever since goggles and snorkels were invented—seeing what tourists dropped, whether it’s jewelry or dollar bills,” he says.
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After hanging up his whistle in the aughts, Cunningham began mining his ever-growing collection to create works of art. Mounted simply on sun-bleached driftwood, plucked from Windward shores, each time-capsulelike piece offers commentary on our lack of care for the environment. “We’re using way too much plastic in our lives and that it ends up in the ocean is just not right.”
Now 69, Cunningham also views the art as a poignant reminder of life’s ephemeral nature. “As I get older, it helps me express that passage of time, that impermanence,” he says. Overarchingly, it expresses his love for the ocean and the joys he’s experienced riding its waves and combing its floor. He says, “It’s a whole other fun, colorful world down below.”
