Click to enlargeThis is a charming project. Dutch photographer Marloes van Doorn arrived in Kuldiga, Latvia and wanted to connect with its people. Limited by the language barrier and being someone who believes in the universal language of love, van Doorn decided to start hugging the people of Kuldiga. The result is her series of photographs titled I Love Kuldiga and varied reactions by the huggees, which ranged from laughter to deep emotion. Very sweet.
via jeroe napers
Click to enlargeThis delightfully colorful tape installation designed by Koji Iyama took place in Sendai, Japan, as a promotion for mt masking tape. Iyama and his team set out to show the multiple/alternate uses of the bright and patterned rolls by covering the walls and floors—as well as other objects they came across—of a huge old garage and then hanging thousands of rolls from the ceiling. The visitors could walk through the space and peruse the tape selections on the tables as well. You can see a time-lapse video of the installation process below:
Click to enlargePossibly my favorite exhibit (and I’m not one to use that term loosely) in the several art fairs I visited this past weekend was Japanese artist Sohei Nishino’s amazingly intricate and simply spectacular Diorama Maps at Pulse. This ongoing series currently consists of thirteen cities from all over the world that Nishino visited. The artist walks around on foot shooting with film from various locations, taking thousands of photos and cutting up the multitude into small pieces then piecing the enormous mounds together by hand. The Diorama Maps are almost a bird’s eye view of each city, emphasizing key elements that follow the artist’s memory and perception more than a precise map. The results are truly breathtaking. These small images don’t do them justice. Definitely worth clicking on the images for a larger view or looking at the cropped, close-up images. They remind me of David Hockney’s photo collages, yet at a more massive—in their elaboration rather than size— and detailed level, but I did have a similar reaction the first time I saw Hockney’s collages.
Click to enlargeIt’s been a weekend of wall-to-wall art and design here in NYC with art fairs small and large, from Pulse, to Nada, to Collective, to Frieze and, of course, the opening of Rain Room at MoMA, the interactive and immersive installation by rAndom International that first debuted at the Barbican Centre in London last October. I will be featuring some of the highlights, for me, from these events in the next few days but here, for starters, is the amazing Rain Room.
Rain Room is a large-scale environment (in the case of MoMA, it’s a separate entity outside the museum on 54th Street) with a field of pouring rain whose flow is suspended detecting the presence of bodies, allowing visitors to wander around the room amidst the beautifully highlighted drops, without getting wet. Injection moulded tiles, solenoid valves, pressure regulators, 3D tracking cameras, custom software and steel beams are involved in the production of the installation. Definitely fun and cool, making for some stunning photographs (better ones if you opt for camera over phone) and lots of kids running fast trying (and mostly succeeding) to get wet.
But, as with all fun and cool NYC activities, there are long lines. If you’re a museum member the wait is slightly shorter, but even early on the first day, while there were probably many still unaware of the exhibit, the wait was about an hour and a half. So, go prepared and avoid peak hours. There are early morning members-only hours from 9:30 to 10:30am but getting there by 9am is likely to be a good idea.
Rain Room is part of EXPO 1: New York and will be on view through July 28, 2013.
Click to enlargeAre those brush strokes with some Jackson Pollock style drips here and there? Take a closer look. That’s right. It’s waxed hair. Ew! Gross? Most will probably think so, but Senior Art student Iris Behler at Brown University explores the role of women in society today and the struggles and negative connotations associated with being a “beautiful woman” in her senior show Attach//Detach. The large quantity of waxed hair on the many strips are given the shape of restrictive structures such as a fence or mirror. The concept of becoming a woman idealized by men involves attachment and detachment both physically as in manicures, extensions, implants, and waxing, but also emotionally in their relationship with men and abuse.
On a much more basic level, I’m simply impressed that Behler was able to accumulate so many strips and keep them from all sticking together!
Click to enlargeUK-based artist Alexander Berchert creates kinetic sculptures using mass-produced objects and applying basic principles of physics to change them from ordinary household items to something fun and unexpected. Three such works are: Hoover Tubes using a vacuum cleaner, ducting tubes, and halogen lights among other items; Limbo which brings together a BMX tire, motor, and ping pong ball; and Water Wheel with perspex pipes, food coloring, motor, corks and more.
The results are fun to watch in action; they are kinetic after all (super-short clips):
Click to enlargeOther than the one corn maze we visited years ago (which was actually a lot of fun and trickier than we would have imagined to find our way out of) and the occasional movie chase scene that occurs in them—such as in The Shining—mazes are not something that I’m very aware of, but I came across a set of them on flickr that really surprised me, so here they are. Who knew?
Click to enlargeThese cracked me up. Someone (an anonymous commuter) has definitely found a way to keep themself entertained on their daily commute to work. There’s definitely an art to these, as simple as the concept may be. He/she really have matched position and even tonality on most of these folded newspaper mashups with unsuspecting co-commuter bodies. Nicely done.
via laughing squid via left eye
Click to enlargeYes, it seems that I’m smitten with Topotek 1’s work (see previous post.) This cotton-candy pink temporary playground was created for the State Garden Show in Wolfsburg, Germany. It’s clear that color and fun are both things that these guys know how to work with well. Twenty-four inflatable objects and fifteen cubes made of foam rubber were strewn across a lawn along with bouncy mats that beckoned to any passer-by. Inspired by grazing horses, young-girls’ romanticism and a Barbie-doll world, this temporary structure is part sculpture part interactive play object.
A more recent garden show installation, in fact going on right now, is in Hamburg and includes wacky Aqua Soccer and Dymaxion Golf. Check it out here.
Click to enlargeThe first thing I thought of when I landed on German landscape architecture studio Topotek 1’s (previously here) projects page and was greeted with all the brightness was “Why don’t real refrigerators come with bright-colored interiors??” So great! Maybe one color for the freezer and another for the fridge? But, they’re not selling refrigerators at Topotek 1. Instead, these are images from their very fun interactive installation titled Cold War at the Venice Architectural Biennale 08. Roughly twenty fridges were lined up and stacked against a wall in the Italian Pavilion each containing funhouse-like effects from sounds, kaleidoscopic viewing machines, to fans, mirrors, peep holes and more. According to principals Martin Rein-Cano and Lorenz Dexler, the installations are a demonstration of the company’s work tactics, offering a glimpse into enchanting worlds.
Get outside and enjoy!
Click to enlargeCurrently studying at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, Singaporean artist Danielle Tay works in a variety of mediums though up until recently they seem to mostly be limited to walls. Her most recent work appears to be a bit of a departure, stepping into immersive installation art with her work PODS showcased at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow this past January in their very appropriate Art Experiment 2013 show. Each pod had a different interior, some were crawled into, others acted more like canopies, but all of them seem to have offered a very cool environment to its visitor.
Click to enlargeThis is fabulous! Em sent me the link to this incredibly clever and fun Clip Bag designed by Peter Bristol in Seattle who, it appears from his site, designed the also fun Training Dresser that made the rounds a couple of years ago.
Made with wool felt and aluminum tubing, this gigantic binder clip is both fun (did I say ‘fun’ enough?) and at the same time rather elegant. A surprising, but delightful, combination. Bristol is looking for potential manufacturing/distribution partners so I imagine this will be a reality soon enough.
via core77
Click to enlargeYou can tell right away from her artist statement (or lack thereof) that English artist Linda Hubbard is not one to sugarcoat things: “INTERESTS ….PROPAGANDA. No artist statement from me……..Bullshit stinks……” And with that, she instantly gained my respect.
Working in mostly sculpture and painting, Hubbard relays her strong beliefs and opinions on corporate greed, religion, income inequality, the food & drug industries and plenty more with humor that packs a punch. She has a whole dark series devoted exclusively to Pfizer titled Pfizerland.
You can see much more of Hubbard’s work on her site.
via saatchionline
Click to enlargeI first saw Alma Haser’s portrait series Cosmic Surgery a couple of months back and then in person at the Scope Art Fair. There’s something disconcerting at first glance but these origami/kaleidoscopic faces are definitely surprising and hard to ignore. There’s sort of a double-take effect. London-based Haser had been working on self-portraiture, being a model at the ready, but more recently she has started taking portraits of others. She tries to find ways to combine working with her hands with her photography and origami, one such way, has clearly become an integral part of these images.
Haser likes the alien and futuristic transformation caused by the origami faces. By simply folding an image she makes the portraits her own creations.
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CollabCubed 