A MONUMENT TO TRIGGS 2
Behind the Sport with surfer first, then artist Henry Jock Walker
Words: Jerome Williams
Partnerships: Matt Willocks
Photography: Emmaline Zanelli, Jennifer Leahy, Jonathan van der Knaap
To surf is to be part of something bigger. It’s an unscripted movement dictated by the variables of nature, its winds, tides, and ever-changing seafloors. This balancing act makes it feel less like a competitive sport and more like a courtship, shared and sealed with trust and respect. Surfing is a mystique that magnetises a misfit community under one shared promise: to surf over and over again, forever.
Henry Jock Walker considers himself a surfer first, then an artist. In his studio and on the walls of galleries, he is an Australian interdisciplinary artist living and working on Kaurna Country. Out in the world, he chases an altruistic purpose, catapulted and flung into existence by his superpowers of defiant optimism and eternal froth.
From early ideas of working in the surf industry, Henry discovered contemporary art and was instantly drawn to its broad horizons. “I’ve done my 10,000 hours in the water. Surfing is the thing I know best,” says Henry. His deep understanding of surf culture and its distinct materials laid the foundations for his practice, merging the contrasting worlds to etch out a signature style. With a quiver of mediums and a sharpened process, Henry repurposes discarded and found wetsuits to balance colour, abstraction and texture into wall-based textile art. His work is awash with a feeling that’s rare and exotic. It alludes to something you might find at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, or any other untouched corner of the world.
It isn’t reliant on its underlying narrative of recycling and reusing; that’s just a happy byproduct of its intelligent beauty. Zooming out to see the bigger picture, Henry views art as an equaliser and communicator, making complex topics approachable and providing a tactile path to action. In a world lived online, art has the ability to bring people together from all walks of life in physical spaces. And when people are rallied, anything is possible.
Armed with this spirit, Henry found a collaborator in Open Space Contemporary Arts (OSCA), a South Australian artist-led organisation dedicated to developing contemporary art in public spaces. Invited to participate in a Series of Unexpected Events (SUE), Henry drew up plans for an event that would strengthen the relationship between people and place through art. “My goal was to create an event and a resource centre for the community, and my own practice. To engage people across disciplines and professions that were all connected by surfing,” Henry says.
The event became a call to action that directly plugged into the local surf community. Something that was for them, by them. Beyond that, it was just a good reason to get together and have a bit of fun in a place that held fond memories for a lot of people.
“People have always hung out at Triggs. It’s a sort of everybody’s wave and a cultural hub for surfing on the mid-coast. Because of that, it felt like the right place to begin,” adds Henry. The event, Triggs 2 Tarp Surfing Team, took place in 2017 at the infamous Triggs car park. It was a resounding success. The activities and interactions with the community nurtured a sense of pride and a shared responsibility for the area. It marked a real and present reason to keep the break healthy and leave it pristine for future generations.
Beginning in 2024, A Monument to Triggs 2 is an ongoing sequel to a good story, extending its message and broadening its reach. Over two years and multiple events, the ambitious large-scale public project is grounded in a simple idea: the community is the artist, and the reef is the audience. “The best thing about contemporary art is that it can be silly and funny. It doesn’t have to be serious. Art can be 500 people blowing bubbles at a reef to give it vibrational energy”, laughs Henry. Over the course of each event, the community put to use surf industry waste to breathe life into monolithic sculptures.
They adopted the side of Henry’s van as a makeshift whiteboard, riffing on ideas about how to safeguard the reef. Groms belted out tunes on an open mic, older heads surfed in alien-like costumes scavenged from wetsuits, and clothes were reimagined and upcycled. Keen goers heard presentations on pointed and diverse environmental subjects, like First Nations peoples sharing traditional and contemporary knowledge about seaweed and natural water filtration systems. Much like Triggs itself, the events became a place for everyone.
They allowed access to a wide range of activities that people could participate in on their own terms and take whatever they needed from the experience. As Henry put it, “They’re a stepping stone towards change. While they’re not physically saving the world, they plant ideas in people’s heads that evolve and grow to make small differences that add up.”
Fast forward to today. A toxic algal bloom has formed in South Australia, triggered by a marine heatwave and increased nutrients from the River Murray. The outbreak is affecting breaks all along the coast, causing marine life deaths, and health issues like skin, eye and respiratory irritation. It’s quickly escalating into a critical emergency that has only recently caught the attention of federal politicians. Addressing this, Henry has produced a short experimental film that explores the coast’s uncertain future.
The film will be screened as part of a larger event that highlights the diverse voices and stories of the locals. Appropriately titled Toxic Surf, the gathering aims to act as a grassroots mouthpiece for the current state of affairs and an open point of discussion for the community. “It’s designed for people to meet up and understand the bloom. To show people that it’s a huge threat to our way of life,” says Henry. With a looming environmental disaster, there’s never been more urgency to plot the course for the next chapter.
Henry is spearheading an ambitious initiative set for mid-2026: securing World Heritage Site designation for the Great Australian Bight. The events will leverage the influence of Surfers for Climate, an activist organisation known for its strategic advocacy. “They’re great at identifying key decision-makers and stakeholders, conducting thorough research, and engaging the most influential audiences to maximum effect”, explains Henry.
The big vision that continues to grow doesn’t start and finish at the periphery of surfing. “I’m optimistic. I always think there’s so much room for exploring environmental activism within surfing, art and other like-minded communities”, Henry riffs. Every outdoor sport intersects with nature in complex ways, and human movement inevitably leaves traces. Trail runners can damage fragile ecosystems during weekend runs. A carelessly secured gel packet can slip from a jacket into pristine habitats. Rock climbers leave chalk residue on ancient stone faces, causing erosion without proper stewardship. How can you protect and raise awareness for the places you move, so they’ll be there for generations to come? “Tackle a big problem in a way that aims to engage people in a fun and playful way, that explains the problem within the process and then provides the resources to help change occur organically”, Henry lays out.
Consider this an open invite to steal, rework and replicate. To do some good in the places you love, doing what you love, in your corner of the world.
Jerome Williams is a writer and creative director with over a decade of experience. He creates structures and tells stories within them that are sincere, off-centre, and imperfect.
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